Expert Campaign - Missions Briefing - Among the Old Gods achievement

[Dallarian]

Fellow Skylords and Cute Beings,

As second person to ever complete “Among the Old Gods” achievement in Battleforge, I started using title “The Old God of Battleships”. As we learn from King of the World himself, best way of starting a cult is being friendly and helpful. Therefore I wish you will enjoy this read, aimed at providing you with both comprehensive and powerful knowledge.

 

Introduction

The thread is aimed at players who struggle with Among the Old Gods. In order to complete the achievement, you have to win all campaign missions on expert difficulty. You will be rewarded generously in 8 General Boosters. Many maps have different exploits and tricks that may make the map trivial – however, as they feel unfair, require particular cards and may be removed by developers, they are not covered here.

Deck choice usually is irrelevant when it comes to expert difficulty. The important aspect is to specialise your deck for each map, and prepare it for particular threats you may encounter. On my first playthrough I have completed the campaign with  Pure Frost deck, as it is my favourite faction. It was before first balance patch, so back then all factions were weaker and had lower amount of viable cards. Pure Fire still may struggle with the achievement, nonetheless, overall you should be able to finish the campaign with your favourite PvE faction. There is no need to sacrifice fun for playing meta, as there is no “the only correct way” – the only limits are in your head.

 

Approach is important

Expert is not meant to be easy.

Try, lose, improve.

This is how humans become better – by making mistakes and learning from them. Thanks to the guide, you can learn on my mistakes and significantly decrease amount of necessary tries to complete the achievement. Pay attention to which enemies you will face, what is their position, weak points and how to exploit the situation. Check map topography to quickly reach Power Wells and intercept enemy attacks. Learn attack timings and understand triggers. [1] Be prepared and do not leave anything to a chance. You will come across problems – enemy attack too strong to deal with, restricted access to cards or monuments, mechanics that doesn’t work like you expected.

 

[1]. Trigger is a condition that starts a particular event. For example in Behind Enemy Lines if you destroy any of spawners that are nearby your Tier 2 locations, enemy waves will become significantly stronger and use specialised units. Keeping spawners alive allows you to explore the map and prepare defence in a more relieved way.

 

Explore. Adapt. Overcome.

There are many cards in Battleforge that are neglected and overlooked, as they are not as flexible as the most popular choices. If someone told me I would be using Icefang Raptor to complete Ocean, or pre-rework Sunken Temple to win Soultree with Pure Nature, I would laugh, as those cards seemed worthless to me. I was wrong, niche cards are awesome in niche situations. When you will start looking for solutions, you will notice those little gems in your collection.

If you are looking for something cheap and solid, you may want to check @Weak1ings ‘s deck, as he was the first person to complete Among the Old Gods, he used an affordable flexible meta deck.

 

Weak1ings' deck:

Spoiler

"(...) I used a deck with some variation that looked like the image below, (...) This won't set any records but gave me a solid starting base to beat every expert map. What is more is that this is a fairly cheap deck
The Key cards that I swapped in included Nightguard, Scythe Fiends, Undead Army, Mark of the Keeper, Mana Wing, Stone of Torment, and a typical shadow start with Forsaken, NG (Nightguard), and Skeleton Warriors for swapping-heavy maps." - Weakl1ngs

List of cards, many of them are starter cards, there is one rare card and 4 uncommon cards.

• Windweavers;
• Werebeasts;
• Surge of Light;
• Hurricane;
• Stranglehold (P);
• Breeding Grounds;
• Amii Phantom;
• Time Vortex (B);
• Curse of Oink;
• Lost Horror (G);
• Shadow Insect;
• Furnance of Flesh;
• Necroblaster (any);
• Thunderstorm;
• Necrofury;
• Giant Wyrm;
• Regrowth;
• Unholy hero;
• Rifle Cultists;
• Offering (G);

Full upgrades are not necessary, though great for core units and spells. If you for some reason do not want to play campaign with your favourite faction, you can use deck listed above as it should be solid enough.

 

Make sure to use what you already have to forge your path to victory, possibly in an unique way. Amii Monument may make many missions easier – however, it is easy to get lazy because of it, and majority of maps are difficult due to situations that happen before you reach Tier 3.  

 

Progress Track

Spoiler

In map descriptions I mention names of units. Some of them have similar names, make sure to identify your enemies correctly.

PvE enemies compedium [to be link later]

• Twilight Slayer - M sized unit exploding on death.
• Twilight Slayers - S sized archers with high DPS.
• Twilight Crawler - M sized large bug with ~800 HP.
• Twilight Crawlers - M sized squad of bugs, with 1600HP total.

 

Currently described maps 22/26:

• Encounters with Twilight
• Siege of Hope
• Defending Hope
• The Soultree
• The Treasure Fleet
• Mo
• Ocean
• Oracle
• Behind Enemy Lines
• Crusade
• Sunbridge
• Nightmare Shard
• Nightmare's End
• Slave Master
• Convoy
• The Insane God
• King of the Giants
• Titans
• Blight
• Empire
• Passage to Darkness
• Ascension

 

Changelog:

• 27 XII 2020 - How to access replays, updates on Slave Master, introducing The Insane God and Nightmare Shard
• 28 XII 2020 - Introducing Nightmare's End, changes in replays.
• 29 XII 2020 - Splitting work into separete posts, introducing Ocean.
• 30 XII 2020 - Introducing Oracle, The Treasure Fleet.
• 31 XII 2020 - Introducing Passage to Darkness.
• 4 I 2021 - Introducing Titans.
• 6 I 2021 - More detailed information on replay's patch.
• 8 I 2021 - Introducing Empire.
• 10 I 2021 - Introducing Ascension.
• 12 I 2021 - Introducing Mo.
• 18 I 2021 - Updates on Behind Enemy Lines.
• 22 I 2021 - Updates on Nightmare Shard, Defending Hope.
• 7 III 2021 - minor improvements in style and grammar, some parts rewritten to make them shorter.
• 16 III 2021 - introducing King of the Giants, Blight.
• 15 VI 2022 – rewritten introduction, Encounters with Twilight, Siege of Hope
• 18 VI 2022 - rewritten Defending Hope, Soultree
• 20 VI 2022 - rewritten The Treasure Fleet, Mo

 

Accessing Replays

Spoiler

To view replays, download the files from bottom of particular map section, put the file in:
My Computer ---> Documents ---> Battleforge ---> replays
This will allow you to access replays in-game. You don’t have to turn your game off – just leave and enter replays tab to view newly added replays.

You can increase replays speed up to x32 times, to quickly access relevant parts of playthrough.

Sometimes when a new Patch is released, old replays stop working. As some replays may start working in the future, I will leave them as reference, and will attempt to provide newer ones.

 

Maps are in separate posts

• 1 player maps are in this post.
• 2 player maps are in post 2 posts below.
• 4 player maps are in post 6 posts below.
• 12 player maps are in post 8 posts below.

 

One Player Maps 9/9

 

Encounters with Twilight

Spoiler

Brief

You will face Vilebloods and Whisperers in early tier 2, and will have to fight Abomination to destroy their spawner. You have as much time as you need to destroy outpost on the north, or to build defence strong enough to hold 4 Hulks and Twilight Dragon.

Use melee units against Infested Wrathgazer and destroy Wisps before they reach him.

Playthrough

Encounters with Twilight is a curious map as you are early introduced to combo of Vileblood and Twilight Whisperers. The former is powerful melee warrior who leaves destructive pool of acid on death, while the latter is a healer with blinding area attack – can easily disable clusters of ranged units. After you get access to second tier, wait. If you kill enemies, they will respawn moment later, and you do not have to hurry into the city. After you build a solid army, move in and clear twilight structures one by one. At some point location with enemy spawn will be within reach – beware as it is protected by Twilight Colossus, Devastators and Witches. If you have crowd control, you may be able to destroy the spawner and return later to defeat the enemies, or launch a huge offensive to destroy all thread before your foes respawn.

When the village is safe, you have as much time to prepare as you need. If you have strong defence deck and answer for Twilight Dragon, using the Horn will prevent enemy respawns. If you prefer attack, crowd control and ranged units will allow you to take down enemy bit by bit. There are total of 4 Twilight Hulks and Twilight Dragon. Fortunately the Twilight Dragon will not respawn, however, after you defeat Hulks make sure to destroy their respective spawners.

To be successful against infested Wrathgazer, make sure to include both melee and ranged units, as well as some Ms and Ls. Smaller squads will decrease chances of disintegrating your precious XLs, ranged units should focus down Wisps/Spirits, and melee units will decrease efficiency of the Wrathgazer.

• Pink line is patrol path of Vileblood and Whisperers.
• Orange circle is location of key spawner in village and Twilight Abomination.
• Red circles show location of key spawners in outpost.
• Purple circle shows location of Twilight Dragon.

In my attempt I used large amount of War Eagles to secure the village and Northland Drakes to clear the outpost together with it’s inhabitans.

 

Encounters with Twilight Frost.pmv

 

 

Siege of Hope

Spoiler

Brief

Difficult part of Siege of Hope is getting to Northern camp (E) and defending it against Twilight Abominations and Twilight Dragon, as they attack the location very quickly.

You will first face small sized enemies defending Tier 2 area. With swift or tough unit you should be able to reach power wells cluster.

Destroy enemy spawner before it spawns a huge wave when 2 minutes are remaining. Establish strong defence in northern camp, as first it will be attacked by Large enemies followed by XL creatures and anti-magic Dragon.

You do not need to defend your monuments in this mission.

 

Playthrough

You will first face 2 Twilight Minions and 1 Twilight Archer defending Tier 2 area, they respawn from nearby spawners. With swift or tough unit you should be able to reach power wells cluster in refugees camp without any fight, as long as you follow the purple path.

If you use air or long-ranged units, you will be able to destroy enemy spawner before it spawns a huge wave when the timer shows 2:00 minutes left. Use remaining time to clear T3 area and proceed to northern and eastern camps. Establish strong defence in northern camp, as first it will be attacked by 2 Twilight Devastators and Abomination, and later by Twilight Dragon which prevents card play.

 

Most popular choices on destroying the spawner are air units like War Eagles, Shadow Phoenixes, or long-ranged units like Firestalkers or Razorshards.

 

Friendly units will defend your monuments 1-3 after you build them, so that you can focus on defending enclaves and gaining Tier 3 and Tier 4. While defending build up a strong T4 army and destroy final Twilight outpost to face map’s boss.

 

• Purple line is the safer path for ground units on their way to refugee camp.
• Blue and Orange circles indicate where to position your long-ranged units to destroy enemy spawner.
• Green lines are paths for swift units to quickly reach remaining enclaves.
• Blue lines show how reinforcements will approach to defend your monuments.

 

Northern enclave

In order to reach northern enclave you have to go through small enemy camp – there are a few M and S units there so it shouldn’t be too difficult to destroy, however, if you wisely use Crowd Control effects, you may be able to pass by with swift unit without engaging in combat.

Around 9:40 enclave will be attacked by 2 Twilight Devastators, around a minute later they will be followed by a Twilight Hulk, around after 16:00 you may expect Twilight Dragon. As Twilight Dragon disables card play around it’s target, dispels any buffs and is immune to magic; make sure to include relevant counter in your deck.

For example War Eagles attacking frozen enemies with Northstar (B) buff were enough for initial defence phase, later supported by Ironclads.

 

Southern Eastern enclave

"Normal troops can't pass through the flames, send something bigger!" - Viridya

As we learn throughout the campaign, Viridya is always wrong. Swift M units will have no troubles passing by, if avoiding enemies. This enclave is attacked by smaller forces, a Twilight Devastator, Twilight Slayer and Twilight minions, after ~15:20 followed by Twilight Hulk and possibly a Twilight Dragon before end of timer.

Your T4 location will be attacked from time to time by a few S and M units, your allies are too weak in this location to sustain defence, consider leaving there some support.

 

Final Battle

You may attack north-east position any time you are ready. The base is heavily defended by Bombards, Twilight Whisperers and other units. On sides there are Infestations which spawn waves to attack on enclaves, so expect a few XL units as well. Twilight Leeches will teleport your units around the camp, possibly changing the battle into complete chaos. You may use this to your advantage with artillery like effects (Comet Catcher, Worldbreaker Gun), grant yourself temporary teleport immunity (Nether Warp) or just crush your opponents by force. When timer for defending enclaves is up, enemy boss will spawn. He has 20 000 HP and should not be a huge threat himself. Defeating him ends the map.

 

My deck, including War Eagles, Northstar and Coldsnap to deal with early XL waves and Worldbreaker Gun Ironclad for late game offense.

 

Siege of Hope Expert Nature.pmvSiege of Hope Expert Frost.pmv

 

 

Defending Hope

Spoiler

Brief

Quantity and quality of enemies increases as the map progresses. First you fight a few S and M enemies. Take and defend northern wells – southern ones may be easily destroyed by nearby XLs, so are usually risky to take.

Around 10:50 you will be attacked by 5 Twilight Devastators, 3 Creepers and some extra units. After timer ends you will be attacked by Devastators and Vilebloods, but some enemies like Dancers and Deathgliders will not attack until you save Rogan. If you are having difficulties defending, before you save Rogan capture extra wells and destroy spawners in corners of the map.

When 7:00 is left on timer, Twilight Hulk will attack you from south west. When 4:00 is left, expect larger wave of Devastators, Horrors and Hulks.

 

Playthrough
Main defence

You are attacked on both sides by S units, usually one of your squads with support of already existing towers should be enough to repel those attackers. After initial wave another one will come from north west and south east. When you destroy it, the timer starts – if you build walls and wait instead, you will be able to accumulate extra power and reach higher monuments, allowing you to easily complete the map with a short delay. Destroying starting towers may help in stalling this phase of the match.

For first 3-4 minutes you should be able to defend each wall with default tower and 1-2 archers – your enemies will mostly include S and M units like Crawlers, Archers, Bruters and flying Creeps. After ~9 minutes of defence you will be engaged by total of 5 Devastators, out of which 2 will come to north mid first; as well as some other support. After timer ends, the siege will be continued by Brutes, Archers, Devastators and Vilebloods.

After you save Rogan, Dancers will start attacking together with Deathgliders; so if you are not confident you may wait, improve your defence, conquer extra power wells and clear spawners in corners of the map.

 

Spawn two squads, one for each side. Focus fire on Twilight Slayers first. You can defend either on T2 or on T3 - you could go straight to T3, however, make sure to have strong and cheap defence to quickly cover all sides. Defence on T2 is a bit easier, however, it scales worse to the late game.

When Viridya shouts “watch out, they are erupting from the ground!” be prepared to defend your wells outside walls.

To deal with Twilight Dancers, you may use long-ranged or flying units like War Eagles, Lost Vigils, Swamp Drakes, Razorleaf or similar. Other units may be good for this as well, however, having to open gate, put your units outside, retreat them after combat and close gate again is taking a lot of time. To deal with Twilight Deathgliders use strong L counters or towers, like Fallen Skyelf, Magma Hurler, Necroblaster, or some XL.

When there is 6:00 time left after saving Rogan, Three Deathgliders spawn from spawners in corners. Another wave spawns when timer shows 3:30 and 1:00. Destruction of all spawners in corners ensures that you won't be sieged by Deathgliders at all.

In the meantime, caves spawn Devastators, Brutes and similar units all the time. When you save Rogan, they start adding Twilight Dancers and larger waves of Vilebloods. When there is 7:00 on timer, first Twilight Hulk spawn, on south east. When timer shows 4:00 left, expect large wave, Devastators, Horrors and Hulks coming. All mentioned units will keep attacking you over time. When horn blows you will be attacked by Twilight Dragon, one on each side, and Deathgliders if you haven't killed their spawners. When horn blows second time, expect more hulks and ground units. Third time horn blows, more units run to attack, however they won't be able to reach your positions in time.

 

Wells outside fortress

Power wells in north east are in decent spot – close to your base, but far enough not to aggro enemy melee warriors. Take them after ~5:30-5:40 so that they are easy to defend – they will be attacked around 10:00-10:15 by Twilight Bugs unborrowing from the ground, followed by two Devastators.

Power wells in the north are in nice position - close enough to your walls, but far enough not to aggro enemies. Take them after 5:30. They will be attacked, so you may put a tower a bit away from it, to the middle of map, to prevent aggroing passing by enemies. The location will be attacked by Twiligiht Bugs errupting from ground at 10:00, which deal bonus damage to structures, and a moment later at 11:10 by two Devastators. I find it worth holding the position. However, it may interfere with your securing Rogan, if you're doing it in micro intensive way. After wells pay off, if you do not feel confident with your defence, feel free to abandon them.

Power wells on the south are in tricky position, nearby two Twilight Hulks. From time to time a patrol passes by, and if Hulks are alive they are likely to aggro and destroy the wells. However, if you take both power wells at 5:30, they should hold for six minutes and therefore fully paying off and give some bonus power. Taking them is optional. If you desire to hold them for longer, then destroy both Hulks defending further wells and capture the area at once - it will be easier to manage defence and harder to lose wells.

 

• Blue circle is area with easy to defend wells
• Purple circle is area with hard to defend wells, as enemy XLs may easily aggro there
• Orange circles are locations of enemy spawners

Clearing path for Rogan

You need to kill 2 L Twilight Deathgliders and XL Twilight Abomination to secure path for Rogan Kayle and your Tier 4. You may build lots of structures next to power wells and aggro enemies there, or use strong/ mobile units and CC to pick up enemies one by one, as they don’t respawn.

T4 area may be attacked by Vilebloods, Devastators, Treefiends, Dancers and more. Make sure to defend your monument, preferably with a XL unit.

Defending Hope Frost Expert.pmv

In my approach I constructed two towers on each wall aided by a group of archers, Tier 3 XLs to defeat Abomination and help with defence and finished the match with solid Worldbreaker Guns defence.

 

 

The Soultree

Spoiler

Brief

Soultree’s difficulty is short amount of time to deal with large wave and pushing while at low power. You will need a T2 form of area damage as well as a strong units for push the Stonekin and solid units to destroy enemy base later - include some cheap T3 L counters for fast reaction and solid T4 for base push.

 

Playthrough

As there is low amount of power on the map be careful with power control. Lyr Defenders are great and most of your defence may rest on them. They provide ground presence for units and structures, however, they cannot create power wells.

 

Initial attacks

When you gain control over Lyr Defenders, send the first one to the rest on the wall and one of northern defenders towards power wells cluster.

Build a cheap structure in a corner so that you are able to create power wells later. When you start construction, immediately retreat Defender to the wall.

 

You should be able to defeat first wave without any loses and large damage taken – if you focus fire your units and walls will take less damage. Take power well when archers from second wave turn toward the wall. During second wave use one spell to help defenders – Glaciation, Hurricane or Mine would do great. Third wave will not come until you defeat second wave, allowing you to stall the game by leaving walls undefended, and gain extra time and power.

Take second power well (or skip it if you have issues with this part of the match) and move your army out of the wall a bit forward – when Viridya’s spell hits, it is beneficial if enemies are more closer together for both duration and area damage effects [2]. Build second monument so it finishes a moment after enemies approach you.

[2] If you don’t heal Lyr’s Defenders in the meantime (resting next to Ice Barrier or similar structure, or Surge of Light when under attack), there is a small chance you will lose 3 squads meaning instant lose. Be careful and if you struggle, do not take second power well and invest more into units, towers or spells.

 

To destroy huge wave most reliable options are unlimited aoe damage sources – Pyromaniac Red, Mountain Rowdy Purple, Spikeroot, Sunken Temple Green, Stone of Torment are most popular choices. Use Lyr Defenders to focus down Large enemies, as they tend to be hardest to kill and avoid standing where Twilight Slayers were – their explosions can quickly decimate your units.

• Blue circle is where you should place an extra structure or unit to later build power wells.
• Green circle is where you should position your Defenders, just next to first wall segment.
• Purple circle is location of Twilight Willzapper

 

Climbing the mountain

After wave is cleared, move Lyr Defenders to the west and destroy everything you don’t need, take third tier and proceed to aid Viridya. L and XL counters, XL units and high damage flying units with CC support would do great. If you are not confident in your existing army, do not hurry with aid – as Viridya freezes enemies, the initial Warriors are not a huge threat to her, and not helping will make Viridya waste more time, while your power levels grow. Use Lyr Defenders for extra damage, but keep them far behind for their safety. When you reach top of mountain, if possible CC enemies and focus fire on Stonekin Grinder, which has CC immunity and is a miniboss. If you plan to use T4 units, destroy your T3 army immediately when enemies are defeated and take power well same way as you did in the beginning of the match.

To hold Viridya’s onslaught use a unit with low cost and high HP, position unit far enough from power well so it does not share damage taken, but close enough to have out of combat health regeneration. Single Tremor, Sun Reaver, Mutating Frenzy, Fathom Lord, Mutating Maniac, Stone Warrior should be tough enough to hold without issues.

Your eastern position will be soon attacked, however, you should have enough time to create a Tier 4 unit there.

 

On the west forestkin creatures will arrive and attack your monument location – 2-3 L counters should be able to defeat them, or an XL should be suitable. Protect the Defenders, as Spikeroots have piercing attack that deals full damage to all targets.

 

When attacking the base be careful for large amount of Twilight Creeps with strong anti-air attack, Twilight Horrors with paralysis as well as Twilight Willzapper with aoe paralysis. After the map is cleared destroy most of your army to get power return and complete the objective.

Soultree Expert Nature.pmvSoultree Expert Frost.pmv

 

 

The Treasure Fleet

Spoiler

Brief

Being aggressive and doing a lot in early game can be both beneficial and difficult. There are easy to conquer areas that either have power wells or spawners – taking control of them hugely boosts your economy and decreases amount of enemies you have to deal with throughout the map. On the other hand it may be difficult to defend Wagon at the same time, and you will need to multitask a lot if you do not want to lose one of the wagons.

Focus down enemy spawners, claim power wells, destroy Willzapper and Bombard, take control over the map.

 

Playthrough

First you will face mostly S enemies with a few M foes – as you progress through the map you will face harder and harder opponents, to finally fight through hordes of L and XL units.

Start with one unit to capture nearby power wells, add 2-3 more units and capture another wells cluster. Your base will be attacked in the meantime, but towers should hold long enough. Destroy nearby spawner and send 1-2 units or a spell to aid your towers in defence. Get second tier as without it defending the Wagon may be extremely difficult.

 

Start escorting the wagon – if possible destroy nearby easy spawners and capture well cluster north to your second monument. If you don’t have solid sustain, you may want to play less aggressively to ensure wagon’s safety. When you reach the Willzapper split your units so it can’t paralise your army all at once, or use spells like Supression or Matter Mastery to take it down. If you synchronise attack with approaching Wagon, it may tank some of paralysis shots for you.

As you start reaching north go forward to destroy the Twillight Bombard – it may be difficult to destroy, however, if you used air, long-ranged or swift units, you may be able to dodge some of its shots and hopefully take it down before it deals critical damage.

 

Evacuation area is defended by Twilight Devastator, Healer, 2 Twilight Slayer, Twilight Bombard and Scyscorcher. Wagon may survive 2-3 shots from bombard when on full HP.
Note that if you are close enough to Bombard, it will not shoot, making Fire and Nature swift melee units an interesting choice.

After you start escorting wagon, ensure your monument is defended as enemies will come from different directions at you – including many S squads and army of 4 M units attacking early from north.

 

Control the map

Destroy enemy spawners as fast as you can – the less units running across the map, the more time you have to regroup your units and prepare defences. Keep your armies in key locations to restrict enemy movement across the map and make sure to provide sustain or other form of healing, so you can regenerate between frequent waves. If you contain enemy and not let them overwhelm you, the map should quickly become easier as you transit into T3 and T4.

 

• Green circles are easy areas to conquer, they all contain spawners and can be cleaned during 1st or 2nd wagon.
• Yellow circles are moderately defended areas, all of them contain spawners.
• Pink circles are heavily defended spawners, additionally reinforced by Evil Eye patrol. Avoid unless on T4.
• Lemon circles are great locations defence and for towers with S knockback, as some enemies will pass by while ignoring fire.
• Teal circles are well clusters to be taken early into the game.
• Orange circles are locations of Twilight Willzapper and Bombard.
   

• Just build towers next to caverns and control the middle to control the chaos.
• Enemy attacks aim at your T2 and T3 areas.
• Purple lines are attacks which may include air units.
• Red lines are attacks with ground units only.
• All attacks which lead to T3 location will follow in straight line to your T2 location.
• Orange circles are cave locations, which spawn units all the time throughout the game.
• Caverns spawn Twilight Archers, after 2nd wagon is secured they create Twilight Hags, and after 3rd wagon is secured Twilight Deathgliders are added.

 

Avoid Twilight Evil Eye patrol until you are on Tier 4, ready to clear last spawners, as else it will respawn without giving you any value.

Move to the left side of T4 area to avoid being attacked by Evil Eye patrol.

 

In my approach I used War Eagles as strong T2 unit to rely defence and offence on it, Stronghold with Skyelf Sage to destroy everyone who leaves caves, and Silverwind Lancers as defence supported and push toward T4.

Treasure Fleet Expert Frost.pmv

 

Mo

Spoiler

Brief

As you control a powerful Juggernaut at the start of the match, the map is appropriately more difficult. At the same time, death of the hero means instant defeat. While you can get to the north using only Mo, it may be difficult to keep him alive if you are too aggressive.

Focus down Bandit Bouncers, Windhunters, use Stampade on Waystation to prevent healing, and then focus down high damage sources like Soulhunters and Artilleries. Use spells and ranged XLs for best results.

 

Playthrough

Spawn a squad to take control over Mo. Move him to the west – kill Bouncer to prevent paralysis and then destroy Wizard Tower. Create some defence against Bandit Skyrakes spawning nearby and proceed East. If you stay on upper side of the path, the Gun Position should not shoot at you. You may stampede Wizard Tower or Waystation and then kill Windhunter.

After restoring your health proceed to the next area. Do not take power well until you kill all enemies and carefully destroy enemy after enemy. If possible provide spell support and do not be afraid to retreat for restoration in the meantime – you don’t have to capture T3 location in one go. Nearby cave will spawn Windhunter and 2 Skyrakes, so prepare relevant defence.

 

Going north

Ranged L and XL units are most reliable choice on the map – you will need tough units with powerful attacks, while being able to stay away from Banzai Birds. Slowly destroy enemy fortifications one by one and frequently retreat to restore your live – there is no need to hurry. Banzai Birds have only 100 HP, so if you are aoe spells and abilities, they will be a great aid. Before Banzai’s Lord location take Mo to right side of the map, so he can destroy Wizard tower and Sniper. You may stampede Gun position and aggro Banzai Lord away from birds spawning location. Focus him down to put end to all Banzai Birds. As Banzai Lord heals from nearby corpses, avoid casualties during fight.

In the meantime make sure to increase your air defences next to two caves, as amount of appearing enemies will slightly increase.

 

Main Bandit outpost

Main Bandit base swarms with Bandits. Use units with M knockback and aoe damage, or air units to avoid most of enemies. Unless you attack Command Walker with air units, focus on Gun Positions and Lieutenants to decrease Bandits morale. Even if you destroy Command Walker, you still will have to fight it later. When Bandits run, secure the area and prepare for final battle.

Make sure you are ready for the fight – first you need to destroy all Raven Ships, then all remaining troops. If you use spells, cast them before Walker uses it’s Aura of Corruption ability. As every ship has special anti-ground ability, Walker has shoot only ground and Gun Positions are around – Air units are greatly favoured. Take Ships one by one and retreat when your army is weakened, Ships do not respawn and it is wise to be careful.

 

• Red circles show where enemy air forces spawn. Left one consist of 4 Skyrakes a wave, while the right one has two Windhunters and Skyrake.
• Purpe circles show areas where enemy patrol spawn, while Bandit Outpost is active.
• Pink circle show where Tortugun spawn after Bandits flee from the map.
• Orange lines represent Bandit patrol routes.

 

Mo Expert Frost.pmvMo Expert Fire Prajoss.pmv

 

Ocean

Spoiler

A very nice map. Spawn a few squads and let them have a bit rest, they deserve it after carrying you through whole campaign.

Defending air attack:

Do not push from your 1st monument. You may consider killing Bandit Steelguards on the hill, but that's it. You need to design a T1 defence that is capable of holding Bandit Air Attack - that includes Bandit Skyrakes, Bandit Windhunter and Bandit Scoutship - with powerful single shot ground attack, and 5200 HP. Attack wave spawns around ~6:45. First attack come at 7:25, and Scoutship at 8:35. Defence chills in your monument and enjoys holidays till waves come. After cleaning enemy Battleship, you no longer need this army and defence.

Securing T2:

Wait till 0:45 for Dropship to come.

Take Dropship west and micro Bandit Windhunter to death. Dropship has rear plating made of mithril titanium alloy. If the ship flies straight and get hit around it's back, it should "dodge" the shot, allowing you to easily kill opponent. Come close to enemy, and when enemy has attack animation, move away from it when flying straight. After you're done with defender, use Disembark ability, capture the well and spawn ~3 more squads in the area. Come to Death Ray summoning altar and suicide your ground units. ~4 squads should allow Deathray Summoner to summon a weakened Deathray. If you manage to lure Bandit Windhunter to die near Death Ray Altar, you will need only squad from Disembark to summon the unit.

Heal the Deathray and attack north island. When healing Deathray, use Dropship to kill nearby air units. Destroy Bandit Artillery, consider killing shamans and other troops, and then free Twilight Frenzy from it's cave. Destroy anti-air turret with some micro (use Dropship to tank dmg) or spell support. Consider retreating Deathway for healing, and then free 2 more Twilight Frenzies from their cages. Use Disembark to secure your 2nd monument here. Power well behind wall is protected by hidden mines. Trigger them before building the well.

Securing T3:

Spawn T2 units in your initial monument and use them to capture the island where your T1 is.

• Suggested attack paths: first yellow, then blue, then green.
• Red S are areas where Bandit Scoutships spawn.

Securing T4:

There is detonator on the island. You can ask some volunteer swift units to turn it on - if you come close the building will become yours and you will be able to use it's ability. After long delay, an explosion appears, destroying many buildings, including both spawners, and dealing large damage to surrounding units, weakening the defence. Then I use teleporter again with my main army and clear the area.

Fighting Bandit Scoutships:

Scoutships spawn usually from 4 locations on the map. You should have easy access to 2 of them, semi-easy access to 3rd one and heavily defended outpost nearby 4th location. It is nice to intercept Scoutships, however you can let a few of them pass, specially ones that spawn in North West. You can use free Dropship (but only ~3-4 will respawn) and a Deathway, together they are capable of destroying Scoutship without any outside assistance, if Dropship tanks some damage. When you access T3/T4, consider using other units (flying XL counters are best) to do this for you, due to low Deathray mobility.

There is no more time pressure on the map, complete it at your own pace. Make large army for end-game and do not rely on T4 spells - you may lose some monuments. A few flying XLs can clear map of Raven Battleships a bit earlier. If you want to trigger the event, make sure to clear many islands from buildings, if you leave some anti-air towers alone, you may be stuck on the map wondering what to do. In late game I kill the Dropship and spawn another XL unit for available supply, Dropship respawns a moment after.

• Spawn locations during last fight - North mid area should spawn no ships.
• Purple lines are attack paths of Battleships spawned in first wave.
• Pink lines are attack paths of Battleships spawned in second wave.

I was very happy to use Icefang Raptor during the mission. It perfectly aided my Stormsingers while securing my T3. The only situation I found the card useful, so far. After accessing T3, I used Northland Drakes to clear the sky and secure some smaller islands, while mounting attacks with my main army. Silverwind Lancers were volunteer swift units to turn on detonator.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Nature run using the same strategy, another Nature run that uses Enlightment instead, and Lost Souls run.

 

Oracle

Spoiler

Early game:

You can wait until 0:30 to let Firechanters destroy first wave that is coming.

Area around Oracle is defended by 3 spawners, 5 towers and some minor troops - waves of Shaman, Bandit Crossbowman and Bandit Footmen are coming from several directions. Make large force and clear everything out, you can retreat to your first monument - if all Firechanters are present, they cast actual healing spell all the time. If some/all Firechanters die in the process, do not worry, you don't need them. Claim wells and your T2 and begin building large force. You basicly need something what can roll over the map quickly to get your T3.

You will be frequently attacked by waves of Bandit Gunners, Bandit Spearmen, Bandit Sorceress, and later Bandit Gunners, Bandit Windhunter and Bandit Footman. Sometimes 2-3 waves at once will arrive. Bandit Gunner is a very problematic unit, similar to Fire T4 Boom Brothers. They counter XL units and have powerful area of effect attack, that hits air units and kill destroy a few your squads at once. Think over a temporary T2 defence while getting T3 with your main force, and add some reliable counters on T3 to deal with the unit.

Then proceed to clear the map. Keep mind, that area with your T4 is heavily defended - by Construct and Bandit Tortugun, which can respawn during fight. It is also likely, that nearby camp will be aggroed as well, with Bandit Soulhunter and another Bandit Tortugun, which can respawn there as well. One could consider destroying right camp first, and then going for left one with monument. Prepare sufficient forces and secure the area. You do not need to deliver all 4 stones at this point. You can wait and build sufficient defence/offense force.

Getting Brimstone:

• Getting nearby first Stone Transporter causes single Bandit Skyrake Alpha Male to spawn, until the stone is delivered.
• 2nd Stone Transporter will cause Bandit Windhunter to spawn and defend it.
• 3rd and 4th Stone Transporters will each cause Raven Scoutship to spawn.
• Locations are random or semi-random.

• Blue line is suggested mid-game attack path.
• Yellow circles are areas where Stone Storage can spawn - with objective inside.
• Purple circles are locations of Bandit Artillery.
• Dark blue is area where your air units may fall under textures. The bug will be probably fixed at some point, but before that happens I suggest to avoid the area.

The ritual:

You are to use spell devices. Regardless if you use correct sequence or not, the effect is still the same. Umbabwe will spawn after 2nd part of ritual, with some troops around the map. Completing 3rd ritual stage correctly gives you effect of Enlightment - allowing you to cast any T1-T4 card once. You do not need it to succeed, however since your monuments are likely to be destroyed, it can be helpful effect. There are many effects going around the fight, including Umbabwe's Meteor shower, however effects around Spell Devices should be possible to spot.

Umbabwe causes 6 Bandit Ships to spawn - more powerful variants of Raven Scoutship. 3 of them are neutral and will drop troops on the map, while other 3 will attack your monument locations from a distance - if you can, ignore them and focus on Umbabwe, since they are very far away. Your T3 area should not be attacked, therefore you will not lose early by losing all monuments. Expect 3 Bandit Gunners and 3 Bandit Snipers to spawn from each Ship, along with 2 Bandit Walkers and 2 Bandit Windhunters spawned a few times next to Umbabwe. Waves from ships may respawn, and attack your first monument, leaving you with only 1 monument remaining.

In my deck I used Stormsingers to provide mid-game defence while War Eagles were clearing the map. Later, I used Silverwind Lancers to get strong presence on the map and strong attack force. During ritual I defended with Dreadnoughts on their ability and Battleships - Battleships deal more significantly more damage to Umbabwe than Ironclads. Worldbreaker Gun support was great as well.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Also see relevant thread, starter cards only run and mixed deck run:

 

 

Behind Enemy Lines

Spoiler

Expect to lose multiple times, even if you know how to play the map. You need a strong plan, multitasking and correct implementation to progress quickly - a small mistakes can make your live very annoying. You often need to be in two or three places at the same time. After you manage to go through early game, you have large options on how to approach the map - if you can stabilise your defence versus Twiligth Dancers and Twilight Deathgliders, the map should become significantly easier.

You need to think over a way you are going to kill disciples in early game. Successful strategies may be based on :

• Mana Wings
• Archer spam with spells
• Nightguards
• Towers

T1 Towers:

Rush to clear good hill positions with 3-4 squads and create a few towers. Control your towers to ensure death of disciples.

• Fire: Only Makeshift tower can hit discpiple while on a way, but the hits are very weak, so you either need ~6-7 towers, or use other units to aggro discples. Not a strong strategy.
• Nature: Stranglethorn (P) can be useful, however it does not one-hit Disciple and allow it to pass by. Pair it with Primeval Watcher - first put watcher, then Stranglethorn - root will allow Primeval Defender to finish Disciple. Keep in-mind, that passing by enemy patrols can aggro Stranglethorn and waste it's short on low priority target, so you may need focus fire with tower. Primeval Watcher on it's own cannot hit Disciple - projectiles are too slow. Strangletorn (G) can be useful as well, however paired with one Primeval Defender it cannot kill Disciple. Ensaring Roots may be helpful on their own.
• Shadow: Phase Towers and Lifestealers may be capable of hitting Disciple when it's passing near towers, it's not enough, though.
• Frost: Defence Tower and Northern Keep can hit Disciple only when it's close. However, usage of Glyph of Frost and Frostbite allows you to kill Disciple while using two towers only. I found it pretty reliable. Ice Shield Tower have fast enough projectiles to hit Disciple on the move, however, they have low damage output. You may need three towers, and I am not sure if it will be enough.

Stack large ground force, at first you may use it to intercept Disciple from one side and defend your base. Later, when you are strong enough, attack one of outposts and get T2. For me it's ~9 minutes in the game. There is no need to hurry, waves do not become stronger.

Mana Wings:

The idea is to create large force of Mana Wings and safely kill Disciples and patrols. With enough Mana Wings, you should be able to clear one of camps. Remember to cover both sides, you may initially start with Mana Wings, and later add some more support units, like Windweavers with Ensaring Roots.

Archer spam:

Long range units that should kill your opponents before they reach you. Initially avoid fighting patrols and focus on increasing numbers and killing Disciples. Then, start killing patrols and finally attack one of outposts while covering second side of the map. Works best with Ensaring Roots, Frostbite and Glyph of Frost - you can attack enemies from hill without any threat. I do not know if Nox Trooper/ Forsaken / Fire Sworn can kill Disciples and patrols fast enough.

Nightguards:

"Easy" mode. Create two Nightguards, go right, take Devastator and Horror. Do not aggro enemies from camp and return Larges for heals. In meantime, create two more Nightguards and go left. Capture Horror, and then either capture another Horror or take Power well. Keep adding Nightgguards and taking enemy Large creatures. Have ~5 Larges and ~2 Nightguards when attacking enemy outpost - capture flying Twilight Creep, and use 2nd Nightguard to create power wells and monument. Do not let Disciple on right side pass - it's difficult to chase it. Make sure to have ~3-4 Larges on side to defend, sometimes enemy waves come together, make sure to heal them next to buildings.

You can quickly have both camps and easily progress through the map. Make sure to prepare for Twilight Dancers and Twilight Deathgliders.

 

Securing T2:

Enemy early attacks come at 3:20 and 6:35, they consist of one Horror and one squad of Pikemen, do not leave your monument undefended.

Twilight Dancers and Twilight Deathgliders start spawning after you kill first spawning camp. Therefore, if you do not kill the camp, they will not start spawning, allowing you to create defences with T3. Keep some melee units on hold position to tank incoming damage, and let them stay next to friendly building for health regeneration. Monument will attempt to destroy spawner, so focus it's fire on other enemies within range and consider synchronising construction of T2 and T3 monuments. If you captured Twilight Creep with Nightguards, you can set them on enemy paths, as shown by @RadicalX here .

• Strong melee units tanking spawner and Disciples with help of regeneration from friendly buildings. Allow me to secure another camp and build defences before Dancers and Deathgliders appear on the map.

Ending map:

If you can stabilise your defence, by for example using Necroblasters or other buildings with units to defend incoming patrols, the map should be way easier. Create large T3 force and capture northern western outpost to get T4. I use Amii Monument in my replays, because it allows me to speed up the map, however it is optional.

The fortress is defended by Abomination and Twilight Dragon. Power wells on the map have very high capacity, giving you a lot of time and power to complete the map.

• Blue circles show good early game areas of towers and attacking enemies from hill. You need to secure areas first - they are defended by tower and pikemen.
• Red circles show caves where some enemy patrols spawn - including Deathglicers and Dancers. There are also patrols coming from northern outpost.
• Green circles show good positions for strong towers, for example Necroblasters. Two thin towers can be constructed in front of right cave to intercept most attacks from fortress and cave, put them next to cliff. However some Disciples may sometimes pass by.

My attempts:

Recently I replayed map with pure Shadow with Nightguard approach. I used Nightguards, Resource Boosters and Amii Monument to get T4 quickly. With Necroblasters I killed Dancers and Deathgliders, and with Overlord, Shadow Worm and Death Ray army I cleaned the map.

 

My initial attempt was with pure Frost, using Towers tactic, I include my detailed order of action:

I create 2 towers on south and cast Frostbite(P) to deal with one, while my 4 Master Archers kill the other one. Glyph of Frost is used to block enemy patrols. In meantime, I heal Master Archers and use them to destroy more towers. Enemy early attacks come at 3:20 and 6:35. I use Imperials with their ability on to tank wave ot Twilight Devastator and Twilight Pikeman. I do not take eastern well in the early game - it attracts enemy patrols too often.

My path:

Southern Pikeman and Tower ----> Eastern Pikeman/Construction Hut on South with 2 towers ----> Northern Twilight Disciple /2 towers and Frostbite kill Disciple on South ---> Eastern Tower/Taking Well ---> Defending enemy attack at 3:20 ----> Western Pikeman ---> Northern Disciple/South Frostbite ----> Western Tower.

I create small outpost on western side of cliff to kill another northern disciple when I am busy defending enemy wave around 6:40.

I also support southern towers and add Warden's Sigil(B). 3 Towers with Sigil can easily deal with Twilight Deathglider that come here later. In the meantime, southern towers aggroed some enemy forces from south east camp - it is easier to capture now.

8 minutes in game, if I missed one of disciples right now, I could be able to kill the abomination. But it would slow me down significantly, so is not desired. With 8 Master Archers I capture and defend (with wall and MA) south east camp and get my Tier 2.

 

With War Eagles I defend from Dancers and let one Disciple transform into Abomination and add War Eagles. I defend with them, freezes and Home Soil. With Stormsinger I kill Deathgliders. I stabilise my defence with War Eagles and the map becomes easier. If you can reach this point in the game, you should be okay with T3 technology.

With Amii Monument and Worldbreaker Guns I clear the map - Amii Monument is optional, but it makes my live significantly easier. If I didn't have access to that, I would use a few Northland Drakes nad Avatars of Frost.

Replay on Patch #400021 with Frost Tower approach is available in files under post. "Behind Enemy Lines Expert.pmv"
Replay on Patch #400023 with Shadow Nightguard approach is available in files under post. "Behind Enemy Lines Expert Shadow.pmv"

Seek inspiration here (Nature, Frost and Shadow/Frost decks) :

 

I will try to improve style and review errors at some point, and also introduce more maps.

List of many guides across the forum by @Eirias.

Larger base of Youtube videos by @MephistoRoss.

Here only replays for 1 player maps are available. Check other posts to find 2, 4 and 12 player maps.

Siege of Hope Expert.pmv Behind Enemy Lines Expert.pmv Defending Hope Expert.pmv Ocean Expert.pmv Oracle Expert.pmvThe Treasure Fleet Expert.pmv Soultree Speedrun.pmv Mo Expert.pmv Behind Enemy Lines Expert Shadow.pmv Defending Hope Expert Shadow.pmv The Treasure Fleet Expert Metagross.pmv

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Weak1ings]

Thanks for the shoutout, I reckon it took me 4-5 days to complete so to any new players out there, you don't need an expensive deck to finish these missions, the real key is friends to do it quickly but most players are just as capable!

[Mind3zzas]

Nice post, in my opinion, u need to find some friends to play with. I almost finished my expert campaign playing with my brother. Anyway, good luck in concurring expert maps.

[Dallarian]

Two players maps 7/7

Crusade

Spoiler

A few towers/units can easily defend northern wall before waves get stronger, but attacks on your positions in the south are absolutely annoying.

You can quickly capture wells behind the wall with 3-4 units, but make sure to defend it with ~3-4 units in early game and maybe a tower (depending on how you feel confident) and later significantly improve the defence. Or, you can ignore the wells and just protect the wall. The choice is yours, but I prefer "greedy" play.

After you secure wells in mid-way to the portal, heal there and then rush to the portal without attacking enemies. You will take damage and 2-3 your squads may die, depending on your units and spell usage, however, you should be able to teleport North with wounded troops. Aggro enemies into Rogan's forces and help them to clean your orb, and then transfer to Tier 2. You do not need to create walls too early, waves appear when timer finishes, it is better to spend power on wells. Prepare defence and decide how you will attack.

• Purple is attack pathway for your air units to snipe enemy spawns.
• Wall 1 is attacked by S Twilight Slayers (ranged archers).
• Wall 2 is attacked by M Twilight Crawlers and M Twilight Crawler (large one).
• Wall 3 is attacked by M Twilight Creeps and M Twilight Leeches - air units.
• Wall 4 is attacked by M Twilight Slayer (melee exploding guy)

Attacking from North:

You can use air units to go around enemy anti air towers and eliminate enemy spawners in advance - it reduce strength of waves going south and prevents respawning units in camp.

Probably easier for Blue player than for Green. If you gather enough forces, you can quickly get T3, but keep in mind that your bottom position need to be defended as well. I suggest adding ~2 Tier 2 towers and some units - to deal with enemy air and destroy enemy long range Twilight Dancers. After you secure your T3 you continue push and secure T4. If you were the slower player, hurry North after you finish the last camp - enemy spawns immediately there. You can also reinforce the position with your T4 in advance. Mark of the Keeper, Nature T1 building allows you to make defence on south significantly easier.

Attacking from South:

You do not need to defend any positions except for Northern walls, so you can focus all your power on pushing forward. You will not be rewarded with T3 early, though, so make sure to stack large force and be careful during attacks, avoid losing units. You need a large attack force to succeed.

 

Enemy attacks on Northern walls will become significantly stronger when timer hits 5:00. Twilight Treefiends, Twilight Devastators and Twilight Vilebloods will join the battle. Support defence with T3 and T4 before or when this happens. After both ways are clear, final waves will be spawning - more previously mentioned units, Twilight Hags, Twilight Abominations, Twilight Hulks, Twilight Creeps. Basicly mix of everything. If your old defence is still in place, you should be fine by casting some T4 spells and adding a few T4 units.

My deck from position 2 (Blue). I used White Rangers with Ice Barrier (to provide healing) to counter wall 3 and Cannon Towers to cover wall 4. With War Eagles, Stormsingers, White Rangers, Northstar and Cannon Towers (1-2 each) I defended south position, while stacking large War Eagle and Stormsinger forces on North to secure T3.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

You can find some inspiration here:

 

Sunbridge

Spoiler

I believe most boring map in the Expert pool, if you are using "the trick".

The trick is to add Amii Gate Operator to control group (for ease of use) and use it all the time. If you can prevent timer from getting ~1:56, you will stop enemy waves coming from Mora for good (including very difficult ones). It is ~3 second long time window every 30 seconds. It make the map annoying, easy and boring. Clean the map at your own speed. During boss fight you must kill treefiends at the same time only once - then you can either try to kill them again, or just kill Mora with your high DPS army.

In the meantime, you will still be attacked by small enemy waves, but you should be able to deal with them.

Suggested early game attack routes:

• First purple.
• Then green.
• Then yellow.

I did use my general PvE Campaign deck. It is not worth even creating a new deck for this map.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Nightmare Shard

Spoiler

The map is difficult, because you often face patrols of L Vilebloods, have to stop Witches from reaching the shard, and difficulty of getting access to T2 and T3.

Securing Tier 2:

I usually give general approach only, however this time I have two suggestions first; which make the game significantly easier.

Mana Wings:

Defence of T2 camp spawn over first 70 seconds of the match, and first anti-air unit appears 50-55 seconds after game start - slightly later on left side of map. If you can destroy Spawner before any anti air unit appears, you can easily clean the area from air. When game starts immediately make two Mana Wings and send them north, add 3rd one and send it north as well. Approach spawner from opposite direction of anti-air tower - be very careful.

If enemy archer spawns, it is fine. Finish the spawner first, and then feel free to use Surge of Light to heal Mana Wings during the fight. Vilebloods when die, hit air units, and some air units may be going toward shard across the map, so keep your Mana Wings somewhere in the middle of camp and be careful.

• Green circle is location of Mana Wings.
• Red circle is desired Infestation, that should fall before anti air units spawn.
• Blue circle is anti air tower, which should be avoided.
• Green line is suggested Mana Wing attack path.
• Example on a video.

Attacking from a hill:

If you get swift unit to middle of the map and create anti air towers here, you should be able to aggro enemy air units in nearby to the tower and deal with them. Then, with swift unit you can run to Twilight Bombard and destroy it - it does not shoot if you are close to it, and if you move fast you won't get hit by first attack. Then, with some luck and spawning more and more units, you should be able to get near area market by blue circle on attached screenshot. Create many ranged units, and you should be able to attack spawner over the cliff - it's possible only on left side of the map. The strategy is difficult and annoying, however it is still easier than general approach. Nature start is excellent, Werebeasts are both swift and tanky.

First attached video shows how to succeed with this approach. Trial and error will help you greatly.

• Blue circle is positon which your troops should take, while attacking the spawner.
• Red circle is desired spawner that should be destroyed.
• Not confirmed yet to be a successful strategy on current game build.

General, difficult approach:

It's awful, but I did not develop anything better yet.

Create large army, until you have almost full unit limit. Together with your ally, attack one of T2 areas. 9 minutes into the game was enough for me. Make sure to use advantages available to your faction, like buildings and spells, you will need all you have. Try to stay away from Vilebloods' corpses, it can decimate your army. Kill as many enemies as you can. Even if you do not manage to break through enemy ranks, quickly create another army and push a moment later - enemies do not respawn at once so you will be able to strike weakened area and destroy the spawner.

• A weakened camp after previous attack.

Wait a bit to rebuild your army and push together the same side of the map. Destroying northern camp on same side of the map will spawn Twilight Willapper, a building that can paralyse troops, making capture of another area more difficult, however it should be still fine, particularly with T3 spell support. (in case if one player stays on T1). Amii Monument can be great in this situation. Continue to clear rest of the map. I suggest avoiding Northern mid camp, and focusing on others before attacking it, however it is up to players to decide.

Note, that your T2 may be attacked by air units on their way to Nightmare Shard, so providing some base defence (1 tower) can be a good thing to do.

Dealing with Witches

Witches always aggro on a wall. Therefore, construction of outer wall ensures that no Witches will achieve the shard, as long as the wall holds. Construction of outer wall and adding there ~2 towers is enough to kill Witches spawned in Frost and Shadow camps. However, while attacking witches on inner walls, you may aggro some of patrols that walk around, including annoying pairs of Vilebloods. Therefore, defence of inner wall should be stronger, to protect the shard from Witches spawned in Fire and Nature camps. In my case, 4 archer squads, 2 towers and spell support was enough to hold inner wall. There are ways of taking control over centre of the map, to achieve the same goal with smaller defence forces, but it reduces defence of Shard.

The more you progress on the map, the more units are added to Witches waves. After destruction of two-three camps, Whisperers are added, which are annoying but fine to deal with. After four camps, long range Twilight Dancers start spawning, so make sure to have some strong units to deal with Witches at this point.

Nightmare Shard:

Putting units of one or both players, grant those players addinotional power over time. If you can hold the area, you will receive nice power boost, which is very useful in early game. Pairs of Vilebloods, a few Crawlers and air units may come to the area. However, if you can aggro all Vilebloods to your walls, then defence becomes fairly easy. To aggro Vilebloods and Crawlers, make sure to put archers on most northern part of the inner wall, otherwise they will be out of your range, however, when archers are busy with other units, Vilebloods are likely to pass by. 3 towers total and one unit from each player is enough to keep the area clear.

The map:

• i stands for inner wall.
• o stands for outer wall.
• S is enemy Shadow camp,
• F is enemy Frost camp.
• Fi is enemy Fire camp.
• N is enemy Nature camp.
• Purple line is attack way for ranged units to destroy enemy spawner in western Shadow camp.
• Single units spawn across the map all the time and proceed to the shard, sometimes attacking Frost, Shadow and Fire camps. At first they are Twilight Bugs, Crawlers, Creeps, Leeches. After destruction of two camps, Vilebloods are added. After three camps, Horrors and Devastators are added. After four camps, Abominations and Hulks are added. Such spawns appear to be random and are very difficult to predict. Some your locations may not be attacked at all, or may be under constant assault. Protect your monuments in a relevant way.

In my Frost attempt I had strong T1, with Northern Keep, Master Archers and Glaciation (very powerful and useful spell, greatly helped to hold both sides of map) to defend, and Frost Mages, Master Archers, Ice Barrier, Home Soil and Frostbite for effence and support of my ally. I stayed on T1 for pretty long and focused mainly on defence of the shard, while my ally cleared the map with his T4.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post, with general approach, and recording of Toggy's stream is currently available in one of quotes.
Replay on Patch #400024 available in files under post, with Mana Wings approach. "Nightmare Shard Expert Mana Wing"

Seek inspiration there, an attempt with only common cards.

 

Nightmare's End

Spoiler

Even if you know how to play it, the map is still awful.
However, "Nightmare's End" on it's own brings hope. After you finish the map, you will never again need to comeback to Nightmare maps. Toggy please.... do not even think about it.

Securing T2:

Spawn a few archer groups. Leave one squad to build both Southern and Northern walls and defend - for now that should be enough. Expect first small attacks at 0:50 and 1:30.

Use rest of your army to move to mid of the map. Initial defences are weak. "The cultist" - L Twilight Horror is supported by 4 shamans. If you attack Twilight Pikemen, you may lure out shamans and kill them easily. After you are done, secure your T2. It is not advices to let one player take T3 - a lot of power must be invested to provide stable defence, while defence for T1 player will be difficult on his own, increasing chances of failure for both players. T2 is monument is a safe location for most of the game.

Securing T3:

With T2 available, return some archers to walls and provide a strong defence to your main orb location from both sides. There is little space for towers on southern wall for Green player, so if you want put there "fat" towers like Cannon Tower or Armored Tower, I suggest using attached configuration. Due to lack of space, spells are your big friend.

Make a large army and secure your T3 on the north. That requires you to shift your defences north, for a short period of time your northern wall will not be attacked, but do not destroy defence there, you will need it later. For Green player, T3 outpost is defended by Twilight Bombard far on upper side of the base. For Blue player, T3 outpost is defended by Twilight Willzapper. Expect heavy resistance. After you secure the area, you may take center of the map on the north - protected by one Twilight Bombard, wall and some smaller units. There are 4 wells, and this is one of two purely secure areas in the game. Be careful for usual attack waves during the siege.

Securing T4:

Follow suggested attack line (later in the post), destroy Twilight Willzapper and build your T4. After you destroy spawners, you need to start defending your northern wall again, and protect the T4 area. This does not influence waves on your ally's side. Consider capturing mid of southern side of the map to get 4 more power wells.

Securing Power Shrines:

If you have enough momentum (current army, time and confidence), you can secure areas immediately and then avoid spawned troops, it will make your live easier in the future. Hold with defending areas before you secure your T4 and are ready to end the mission. Try to split your forces and attack at similar time ~at once. The shorter your army will need to defend the areas, the less waves it will fight with. Remember that all 4 shrines must be secured at the same time to trigger last event. Waves will start spawning. Position 1 the Green player's Power Wells may accro Twilight Hags near T3 area, leading to loss of area. I suggest keeping a unit/building far behind to allow to rebuild the area.

Performing the ritual:

Units spawning almost everywhere and trying to destroy everything. Make sure to quickly go to the Shard and provide some buildings around to heal between combats. Have durable high DPS army. It's trully a Nightmare. You may lose your monuments during the proccess, so do not rely on T4 spells.

• Purple lines are enemy paths that attack your position - in addition to other, old attacks that keep attacking your T3 and T4.
• Blue areas are actual safe areas when perfoming the ritual.

Support your defence with powerful defence structures like Worldbreaker Guns, Necroblasters, Comet Catchers, Volcanos, Marks of Keeper, and powerful ground army. During the ritual, all your monument locations are attacked. Make sure you defend properly atleast one - if you lose all your monuments, you have 1 minute to rebuild or you lose. Your T4 should be easiest to defend.

Know the map:

• Pink line - Twilight Deathglider patrols consist of 4 Deathgliders. If possible, get rid of them before you engage in larger fights. They do not respawn.

• Green S are enemy spawning zones. You can destroy ABCD spawners. Instead of AB, enemies will spawn in caves in center of the map.
• Orange lines are enemy attack paths, during most of the game. Destruction of CD spawners actually stop all attack waves on your southern wall. Destruction of AB spawners requires you to shift your defence from your Northern wall to defend your T3.
• Purple lines in mid of map are enemy attack paths after you destroy spawners CD. In southern side of map it represents paths from caves, that constatly come to T4 area.
• Blue lines are suggested attack routes on CD areas. It allows you to destroy Deathglider patrols in advance, attack from angle which helps you destroy Twilight Willzapper, and do not require you to stay inside of area which constantly spawns units (purple paths in southern side of the map).

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.
Replay on Patch #400025 available in files under post. "Nightmares End Expert 25"

Pure fire run with heavy Volcano usage:

 

Slave Master

Spoiler

Difficult map even on Advanced if you don't have any idea how to do it. But once you know how to approach mission, it should get way easier.

The idea is "we allow Twilight to do whatever they want". Twilight waves appear every ~100 seconds.

The strategy makes use of a trick. Both players spawn ranged units and go thin eastern road. There is wind device that blows your units. Ignore it's existance, it stops for moments. Kill everything on hill, including spawning camp. Then both players can take 1 well each and suicide units on low ground.

Use ~2 units as temporary defence on your main orb, a small wave of 3 unit attack you once. Decide which player goes to T3/T4 first. Push and capture 1 orb, wait for it to finish, and then kill Soulhunter and let the player crab 2nd orb so that he is on T3. Now, after around ~2 Twilight waves with Twilight Abomination, after wave passes, run from your 1st monument to default T2 orbs and turn on the emitter.

Emitter needs 30 seconds to turn on, so like ~25 seconds remaining on timer is necessary + some crowd control (to kill Abomination in fire), or turn emitter on before wave appears (use swift unit), to make it spawn air units. I usually do it after 3rd Twilight wave that spawns abomination. Now, one player should have T4 (and most of wells, so that they can afford units), and one player should have T2. T4 player keeps pushing east/mid side of canyon. T2 player can capture orb that is on "bottom of first western wall" - there will be 1 weak turret, rest defences were killed by twilight. Then T4 player secures 4th orb for T3 player.

• Purple line represents initial attack of both players.
• Green line represents attack way of "Attacker" player, he should not trigger Mo's event before 2nd player has some army to help during last fight. Also make sure to guard the area and do not let Twilight Dragons to kill any of slaves.
• Blue line represents two free monuments to take for "Defender" player. 4th monument is cleared by "attacker" player in mid of the map.

One of players (initial T4 person, but tbh shouldn't matter too much) is pushing the map (but avoid triggering Mo event too early, run around, secure wells and so on, both players need army to follow Mo later), and second player is setting up defence for Twilight waves. Twilight will spawn infestation at some point in the game - Twilight Dragon, Abominations and other large waves will run into fire emitter. The area must be defended efficiently, and later defender should join attacker in offense with Mo. The attacker should also make sure, that none of (usually only 2 spawn) Twilight Dragons reach slaves - it can lose an almost won match. (the case in currently uploaded replay,  it is a failure run, I will update it later with victorious match when I think enough time, the replay shows early game strategy, though)

Free slaves, clear right side of map, and now up to you, either try to keep busy Ravenheart and let slaves with Mo run next to it straight to the portal, or do what QueekQueek asks and go around to south. Make sure to leave one unit next to Mo, one of players must take control over him and bring him to portal as well.

I was the "defender". With Juice Tank I needed not many wells around the map (could leave initial ones to partner, so that he can push and unlock T4 for me) and ~4 Worldbreaker Guns with Skyelf Sages and 1 Dreadnought and Ice Barrier Barrier was enough to make perfect defence vs Twilight, however it required a lot of attention (I am good at multitasking, but I do not know if you are, so you may consider leaving some more XL units here and buildings that do not need any attention).

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Attempt with pure fire with described strategy:

 

Convoy

Spoiler

Another map, where you need an idea to do it succesfully.

Device spells:

You have only 3 Walkers available. Your priority is to "setup charges farm". There is no need to worry about 1st and 2nd walkers. Green player must spam Heal on the Walker and Blue player has to spam Freeze every time enemy units can be under effect of it.  This combo is sufficient to let 3rd walker destroy the shrine. Meteor spell may be good, but on Expert you don't have enough walkers to use it. During final battle with boss in the canyon, just spam all the spells and you should be fine - ensure you have control over all 3 crystals before that happens.

Idea for attempt:

You should first secure your wells, and then depending on you, secure either 2nd monument or nearest crystal. You must setup a strong force/defence to kill Stone Warriors a moment after they spawn to provide sufficient amount of spell charges to protect the walker. Then support the 3rd walker until the shrine is destroyed, while getting T3 in the meantime. Both players must succeed in getting charges and casting spells.

Nightguard related strategy can be successful, however be careful - captured Stonekin Warriors do not grant charges upon death and you may run out of charges, compared to normal killing the enemies.

My action order:

From position 1 I first go to wells, then destroy buildings (except for anti air) around the crystal, but do not activate it. Destroy 1 wave of L Stonekin Warriors in meantime and then I go for 2nd monument. I build defence that consist of cannon towers and then run back to the crystal, activate it, start casting heal and secure 2nd spawning location. When Stonekin Warriors die shortly after spawn, they should give you a lot of charges, and you can start focusing on getting your T3 while healing/freezing around the Walker. ~3 cannon towers are enough. After shrine falls the waves become larger and more difficult, but I have enough defence. I get T4 and secure map with Worldbreaker Guns.

• Blue areas are just next to spawn locations, excellent place for towers and position for your forces.
• Purple areas are spawn locations you are not interested in until late-game.

After you have stable defence, destroy numerous L creatures defending your T4 and last crystal, secure all spawning locations and kill the boss. After Walker destroy the shrine, it is enough for one player to keep playing. If the other one dies in meantime, his 1st monument should remain intact. One player should be able to carry the game from this point if has reliable defence.

Stonekin Warlord Boss:

Moon says to use different elements than one activated on Warlord. I do not personally get many details of this mechanics, because Worldbreaker Gun solves all my problems. After boss teleports into canyon, you can freeze him. Also, it is possible to shoot into canyon with Worldbreaker Guns, finishing the map a bit earlier. If not, then it is enough for one player to spam skills from all crystals (at the same time) to win the map.

Make sure you have strong T1 and enough defence to hold waves. I can hold bottom spawner with Cannon Towers only, on middle I cast Coldsnap at larger waves, and on top one I keep some of my XL units.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Runs using similar strategy, with common cards only, and later a pure Fire run:

 

The Insane God

Spoiler

Early game seem to be pretty calm if you know what to expect.

Position 1 the Green player:

On your way you usually fight with 2 enemy squads at once. I needed 5 squads to breach to the main area. S Twilight Slayers (archers) are annoying with their DPS, but that's it. I suggest saving rest of the power for wells. To reach mid of map you need to go through an outpost that contains a wall. With ranged units you can easily destroy targets one by one and retreat to nearby well to heal. Then you can destroy squad, tower and spawner next to wall, while one of your units run into the center to take wells.

Expect first attacks on both walls at 6:30. You should have enough time and power to take all wells, T2 and create both walls. Northern wall is supported by living tower, so require less defence initially. Build 2-4 towers on each wall and your defence should be okay. However, I used 3 towers, but I had to support them with spells - they get attacked at the same time and M Twilight Guardian is very tanky. No air units are going to bother you before attack at 15:05. At 15:50 your ally gets attack from the south by Twilight Dragon. Aid your ally if he needs you. Another powerful wave with Twilight Dragon comes to same location at 21:10. On your southern side at 25:45 a strong wave with Twilight Evil Eye come, followed by another powerful wave with Twilight Dragon at 26:25.

This position seem to be easier than the other one. Allow you to capture wells quicker, enemy waves come later and usually are weaker. Make sure to aid your ally when necessary.

Secure your T3 at monument number 2 on the map.

Position 2 the Blue player:

On your way to the center you will fight 2-3 enemy squads and a tower. S Twilight Slayers (archers) are annoying with their DPS. Later, you will meet an outpost on your way. You can either destroy it, or try to pass by and return there later. The spawner will create a single squad that will go to the center of the map.

Secure all wells and take your T2. Some enemy waves are dependant on how fast you reach temple, therefore all timings below are just estimations, however, they should give you good idea on what and when to expect.

First attack come at 5:35 from North and consist of 3 squads, you should be able to kill it with your army. Another attack, as strong as previous one come from south at 5:55. Both waves can be easily killed by your army and available living towers. 3rd wave come at 6:25 from North and consist of 3 M Twilight Slayers, a wall would be very useful at stopping them. After you achieve T2, create a strong defence. Larger waves usually come at you rather than your ally, at 9:00 a large attack comes from the south, supported by another strong wave at 9:25, medium sized wave at 9:40 from north; and later large wave at 15:30, with Twilight Dragon at 15:50 come from south and at 21:10 at the same location. Your ally could help you dealing with those. Atleast you do not have to worry about Urzach Guardians on south, they come to north wall only.

This position is harder than the other one.  Your ally should aid you if you are in large danger.

Secure your T3 at monument number 3 on the map.

Know the map:

• Monument 1 may be attacked by crawlers and other small waves, requires defence. Defence may aggro Urzach Guardian, and not safetly placed defence may aggro some attack waves coming at the wall.
• Monument 2 is a safe area. With correct, careful building placement it will never be attacked, neither by attack waves nor by Urzach Guardian, which will pass by in the distance.
• Monument 3 is a safe area. It will never be attacked.
• Monument 4 may be frequently attacked. Patrol respawns in nearby caves - even if it's patrol route is different, it always check the monument area first.  A very dangerous place to make monument. However, if players manage to avoid patrols and do not kill them, then this is a safe area.
• Monument 5 should be a safe area, but clearing out this location is not adviced.
• Monument 6 may, or may not get attacked. At this point an XL army should be stationing around, in preparation for attack on Urzach, so should not be a problem. However, monument probably will aggro respawned patrols. Is a more convenient alternative than monument number 4, however requires already some pushing input from one of players.
• Purple lines represent good pathways for air units to snipe enemy spawners. It will reduce number of weak waves coming at walls, destroying spawner next to monument 4 is particularly useful - you may decide not to secure this area at all, and your defence will be relieved.
• ~2 Worldbreaker Guns or Comet Catchers in mid of map can greatly relief defence of all 4 walls and greatly aid in fight with Twilight Dragon waves.

Southern western Twilight outpost:

Theoritically you can destroy it to stop large waves. However (not confirmed, but this is what I think happened during my first attempt), Twilight Dragons will keep spawning from tunnel entrances instead. Therefore, unless you want to secure those wells and orbs, there is no point in destroying the outpost. It is better to focus your attention on strong Southern defence, and destroy Urzah in Northern Eastern fortress.

Maps mechanics:

Urzach Guardians are useful, can aid you at defence of particular areas, like Monument 1 or Monument 4. However, spawning them requires breaching to shrines, what is not necessary to finish the map. Enemy Guardians are as strong as yours. They have 6000 HP, so overpowered defence or supporting spells are necessary, Frostbite does well.

Southern and Northeastern altars can easily be stopped by 2-3 air units. Only air defence in nearby are 2 Twilight Deathgliders, which can deaggro after running away, or will not aggro if you intercept a priest fast enough. However, Urzach Guardian will spawn instead of next priest, so it does not secure you from those.

Killing Urzach:

After you destroy most of defences in the fortress, I suggest luring Urzach away from it's lair. It will spawn Twilight Dragons to aid him, and they will spawn around it's initial position. Boss' description says it will use powerful ability after feeding from corpses, and has powerful DPS. Attack with forces that may quickly kill the boss and do not lose your units. It may be a very difficult fight.

In my initial attempt I used Amii Monument in order not to bother with securing more areas. For a rerun I took Amii Ritual instead, it makes walls immortal for 25 seconds, allowing to properly react to large waves. 3 cannon towers with Northstar and spell support was enough to defend early to mid-game waves for Position 1 the Green player.

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

You may find inspiration here, an attempt with only common cards:

 

 

Sunbridge Expert.pmv The Insane God Expert.pmv Convoy Expert.pmv Crusade Expert.pmv Nightmare Shard Expert.pmv Nightmare's End Expert.pmv Slave Master Expert.pmv Nightmare Shard Expert Mana Wing.pmv Nightmares End Expert 25.pmv

Edited February 11, 2021 by Dallarian

[Treim]

Addendum Encounters with Twilight - I played this on expert with just the starter cards with deck level 0 (first map I played after reset - first to do it on expert):

The spawn on the southeast is the key to complete the 2nd part of the map because the Whisperers and Vileblood respawn there. I pulled in the Vileblood and Twilight whsiperers to let Rogan handle them while i sneaked past with 4 Firestalkers and ran the bottom path to the spawn camp with the Abomination. CC the L and XL units at the spawn camp while attacking the camp on max range with fire stalkers. I think I used 1-2 Surge of Light to keep them alive long enough. Afterwards you can clear everything with windweavers or whatever unit you prefer. Vileblood and Whisperers are taken care of and you can clear the big camp with the Abomination after clearing t3. Swampdrakes sleep in combination with Curse of Oink and a couple Magma Hurlers are enough if you lure them out and take out the 2 L-units you pull first before focusing your attention on the Abomination.

Addendum Behind Enemy Lines:

The map becomes much easier if you refrain from killing the spawn buildings at your t2 and t3 as killing those triggers stronger waves. You can see this in a replay from @RadicalX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHd7xVPuIdc

Addendum Crusade:
Defense in the South - You can trap incomes if you do not kill the archers completely and only kill the melee units. You can achieve this easiest with Mark of the Keeper and taking the wall. The Archers will start running around but never attack anything (make sure to kill them once all the camps are down, otherwise the endwave doesnt trigger) You can also do this with Nomads as demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g52hVdIKqq4
Frost you can use Warden's Sigil, Shadow you can decimate the archers as shown in video above and just place 2 Embalmer's Shrine or somthing similar. It takes a while to take them down.
 

Addendum Sunbridge:
Even if you use the Gate trick on the right side at around 6 minutes an archer will come through and if it gets to your monument on the very right side on the map (if you already build it), it will pull the camp on top of it. You can prevent this by placing a unit at the gate to take care of that archer.
Also you can use t1 towers to outrange archers at the wall. Phase tower with their relocation is especially good. Termite hill works wonders on those as well. If you start nature t1 you can use hurricane to blow archers of the walls and make the clear way easier. Furthermore the wall breaks down after you destroyed exactly half of the segments. You can use this to stay out of range of 1 half of the archers on the wall, if you positions yourself properly.

The longer the gate is open within its 30 second cycle before the 2nd shrine is defeated the stronger the income will be that attacks you. The side that is attacked depends on which side the gate was last open when the last shrine was destroyed.

Addendum  - Convoy:
After the Grinder teleports in the middle path you can shoot him with Rifle Cultists' ability from the outside to end the map a bit earlier.
You can also use undead army at the beginning of the map and then scythe fiends ability to get in that area and then prevent walkers from advancing with placing buildings at the bottom at the bottom at the path. Left player can then shoot with Rifle Cultists from the outside to destroy the shrine after capturing t4. The walker block essentially eliminates any time limit you have on the map and makes this map pretty much unloseable.

 

Overall a good initial overview for maps that should help newer players to get a idea on what is going on on these maps and to avoid replaying map starts over and over again or be stuck in them for 40 minutes+.
I think especially the Nightmare maps are very bothersome if you do not understand whats going on and what to do (tbf they are bothersome even if you know).
Looking forward for what you have for some of the 4 player maps.
 

[Volin]

Hey, this Thread did already helped me. I am a slow learner, not often playing campain, these sum ups are very good for me.

[Droelf]

Not yet used any of your descriptions but will do in the next days for maps im struggling with. Thanks for your write up!

[Dallarian]

Four Players Maps 3.95/8

Bad Harvest - work in progress

Spoiler

Replay on Patch #400025 available in files under post.

King of the Giants

Spoiler

Typical Stonekin map - large creatures and weak anti-air.

The map requires steady pushing, however, not as tight as Blight. On T1 get something to kill enemy S and L units and transfer into air units on T2 - to exploit lack of proper anti air.

As long as you can clean map in advance for Rogan, he will be okay. If for some reasons you want to heal him - Shaman and other units are able to do so, however, spells do not work.

 

Early game defence:

Position 1 and 2 will be attacked by two waves of Stonekin Shards, which consist of 4 squads. First wave begins attack within first minute of the match, and second wave spawns approximately 90 seconds after first wave is killed.

Position 3 and 4 is attacked by Stonekin Warrior and Stonekin Aggressor at around 9:00. They spawn in same cave as Rogan and Jorne do and follow the path. If they do not aggro on T1 location, they proceed to T2 area.

 

Exploit enemy weakness:

Stonekin has very little anti-air on this map, and it consists of mainly towers. Air units like Mana Wings, War Eagles, Windhunters and Skyfire Drakes can safely secure T3 location and effectively clean large part of the map.

Know the map:

• Purple circles show location of enemy spawners. Make sure to destroy them, because they can spawn medium sized waves in late game and attack various monuments locations. Not all of them spawn units, however, it is better not to risk.
• Red circles show heavily fortified enemy location with Hammerfall, and no air defence. You can attack the locations with T2 only. You will need large army if you decide not to use air units.

 

The map is not demanding in terms of deck, I used my standard deck to complete it.
In my attempt I use Frostmages and Master Archers to clean T2 area, and then War Eagles to secure rest of the map.

Replay on Patch #400024 available in files under post. "King of the Giants Expert"
Replay of ideal run on Patch #400025 available in files under post. "King of the Giants Expert Perfect"

Titans

Spoiler

Position 4 player the Teal must push strong enough to provide way for Jorne. Position 1 the Green and Position 2 the Blue need to rescue together total off 12 civilians, which is 2 areas for each player, and Position 3 player the Yellow have no pressure and just need to clear his area.

Every location has Mark of the Keeper. While it turns of usage of magic and all ranged attacks, most ranged units are capable of destroying it from distance. - however amount of troops doing so is very limited due to split mechanics.

Position 1 player the Green:

You will face many Sunstriders on walls, some mix of enemy S/M/L troops, a few Living Towers and Marks of the Keeper. Marks of the Keeper can be attacked by medium ranged units like Frost Mages and Nightguards, if positioned correctly, but you may use melee units as well.

Clear two areas with civilians and do not forget to open their respective gates. Before taking T2, consider clearing H area first - you would need larger forces to destroy Living Tower, Mark of the Keeper and coresponding troops, but it will allow you a bit earlier access to power well - you do not have many of those around. Destruction of H spawners is useful for player on position 3, so do not leave them to the last moment. You may happen to fight with Spikeroots during the process.

Nature large outpost is defended by many troops and towers, including Swamp Drakes, Fanthom Lords and Thornbarks, and sends 2 squads of Spearmen into three directions, you will have to face two of those attacks early, the third one is not an early threat. Gather large force before attack.

In your area you have only 7 power wells, therefore you should try to take all 4 wells available nearby, so that you can be an useful asset in late game.

• Green line is suggested early game attack path.
• Blue lines are good paths for air attacks.
• Red circle is area of strong Nature presence with 3 spawners and large defence.

Position 2 player the Blue:

You will face many Windweavers on walls, some mix of enemy S/M/L troops, a few Living Towers and Marks of the Keeper.

Clear two areas with civilians and do not forget to open their respective gates. Before taking T2, consider clearing H area first - it will greatly help your ally on position 3, and you will have earlier access to power well - you do not have many of those around. You may happen to fight with Magma Hurlers in the process, however one of fire spawners can be sniped very early into the game. After you clear first group of prisoners, consider clearing out north area first.

Fire large outpost is defended by many troops and towers, including Emberstrikes, Magma Hurlers and Virtuoso, and sends 2 squads of Thugs into two directions, you will have to face two of those attacks early, the third one is not an early threat. Gather large force before attack.

In your area you have only 7 power wells, therefore you should try to take all 4 wells available nearby, so that you can be an useful asset in late game.

• Green line is suggested early game attack path.
• Blue lines are good paths for air attacks.
• Red circle is area of strong Fire presence with 2 spawners and large defence.

Position 3 player the yellow:

You are the only player without time pressure, your only goal is clear your area which may be a bit annoying. You are going to face many L units in the process, so wait a bit and stack a decent army - the wall may be initially useful to stop initial Magma Hurlers and Thornbarks.

Where to may be influenced depending on how fast you and Position 1 player the Green clear the map, but it does not matter much. Create large force and clear areas one by one. Fire and Nature tunnels are the only "spawners" active in the area. When you secure your T2, you should be able to speed up a bit, and deal better with Vulcan defending T3 area. Thornbarks will be delayed by enemy wall next to their attack path, however they will start coming to your momument at some point - if not emilinated quickly by player on position 1. Magma Hurlers will keep coming from north - but usually get quickly eliminated by player on position 2.

• Green line is suggested early game attack path.
• Blue lines are good paths for air attacks.

Avoid taking any of 8 wells in mid of the map, your area has 13 power wells, the most on the map. Players on positions 1 and 2 need those wells to be useful in late game - that will allow them to have 11 wells total.

Position 4 player the teal:

Probably the hardest position - on you it usually depends whether team wins or not.

Expect waves that consist of 2 Spearmen, that come both from south and north. Prepare strong T1 and T2. You could go way around, but it is heavily defended including Swamp Drake and more defencers, and since you are under time pressure I suggest going front through the wall, getting T2 and pushing further with this technology. When you are attacking wall, expect enemy archers to respawn and come back to wall, so wait a moment and then attack to quickly breach wall and intercept any new windweavers. Try to kill all nearby spearmen without engaging any other units, and then attack Living Tower and Phantom Lord.

You will have to destroy Thornbarks protecting healing well and face XL Colossus in your usual T4 location. To reach Amii gate operator you will have to fight another Colossus, 3 Swamp Drakes, Phantom Lord and Living Tower. However, you do not have to kill them - you can drag their attention and open gate with one of your units. Jorne will attempt to kill Rogan, however he does it slowly, so you have around 15-16 minutes of time.

In my attempt I captured T2 by pushing through wall with Master Archers, 3 Frost Mages and ~2 Imperials. Then I added War Eagles to remaining units and while adding more Eagles I pushes rest of the map. Attempts based on Nightguards may be good to go north instead of wall. If you are desperate, it is possible to block Jorne with buildings.

Avoid taking any of 8 wells in mid of the map, your area has 12 power wells. Players on positions 1 and 2 need those wells to be useful in late game - that will allow them to have 11 wells total.

Brannoc fight:

Destroy Twilight Emitters that support Brannoc and wait for Civilians before you waste any spells and abilities.

There are two strategies, one to have a regular fight, where you have two players on sides that destroy supporting units and red crystals, or all 4 players attack Brannoc and kill him immediately, both work fine. The key is, you should have enough DPS to keep the fight short.

 

Replay on Patch #400021 available in files under post.
Replay on Patch #400025 with pure Frost pos 4 approach is available in files under post. "Titans Expert Frost 4"

You may find some inspiration here:

 

Blight

Spoiler

I find it difficult to further develop this section, and there are other great sources available on the forum, therefore I decided to close the section without finishing it properly.

Introduction:

The map is difficult in early and mid game, because it requires you to push enemy camps quickly, and if you fail once, difficulty snowballs. Know the map, fight only when you must and do not waste time on different locations. Remember, that second camp always has Bandit Wizard Tower, meaning you usually need large or long-ranged units to be able to push it effectively.

• When on way to attack first camp, do not claim more than 1 power well - you need both time and power to keep pushing.
• When on way to attack second camp, you may consider not to take one power well from T2, to increase strength of your attack. However, if you clear T2 area on time, power wells should pay off in ~3 minutes. The decision is yours. Depending on strategy, you do not need to clear the area, destruction of the camp is enough, you can come back later.
• When on way to attack third camp, consider suicide strategies. The goal is to destroy the camp, not to secure the area. If you stop largest waves on one side of the map, the difficult part of match should end. To succeed, some strategies require only T2, however using T3 technology can be helpful.

If you destroy the camp perfectly when time ends, you will have to face the wave anyway.

In given replays, you do not need/care about the whole match. The only thing that matters, is a successful early game strategy you can copy - many of matches may be lost due to many circumstances, but it does not nullify a good early game strategy. Also many of those replays do not work on current game build - they may get fixed within a few months. Working replays will be marked by adnotation.

Waves:

• First enemy wave spawns at ~4:03. Depending on position, you will have to fight mostly S and M troops in different configurations to reach the camp. You should destroy first camp on your own to increase your chances of survival. With T1 only, you will face almost certain doom. The wave consist of many S squads and 3 Bandit Snipers.
• Second wave spawns at ~8:24. It can be okay, if you do not manage to destroy second camp. If you cannot push anymore, make sure to create large defence and use spells to hold the wave. Keep increasing defence in preparation for T4 wave. The wave consists of 2 Soulhunters, Bandit Windhunter, 3 Bandit Stalkers and 4 Bandit Crossbowmen.
• Third wave spawns at ~13:29. You can defend it with both T2 and T3 - if one side of the map was completed, your ally should be able to aid you with spells, and later units. The wave consist of 2 Bandit Tortuguns, 2 Bandit Soulhunters, 3 Bandit Wildhunters, 5 squads of Bandit Lancers and 3 Bandit Snipers.
• In the meantime, you will be attacked every few minutes with large number of S squads, later supported by Bandit Sniper, so leave sufficient forces to defend.

Western wave goes to Position 4 player the Teal. Eastern wave goes to Position 1 player the Green.

Position 1 - short brief

Spoiler

Bandit Snipers do pew pew.

Go east.

Power well is defended by 2 S Bandit Footmen and 1 Bandit Crossbowmen, you should be able to claim the well within first 90 seconds of the match. Avoid 2nd power well location and nearby patrol - dealing with those will only slow you down.

The first spawner is defended by 2 Bandit Launchers, 3 Bouncers, 2 Spearmen, 2 Healers, 1 Sorceress and 1 Bandit Sniper, making it the hardest T1 spawner to clear since all enemy units have very high damage output and many stuns.

Second spawner is defended by 1 Bandit Wizard Tower, 1 Bandit Launcher, 1 Windhunter, 2 Sorceress, 4 Snipers and Waystation. Units walk around, so consider striking when they are all grouped, to successfully use spells and quickly eliminate high damage threat. However, the area requires strict strategies to be cleaned on time, consider building large force and attacking it later.

Between you and last camp there are 2 more enemy areas. First consist of Bandit Gunner, Windhunter, Bouncer and 2 Sorceress, and second has Wizard Tower, Gunner and 2 Snipers. Therefore most of attacks will cause loses, and you cannot pass by the units because of their large DPS, making quick approaching the area almost impossible.

Since you will be delayed, hope that player on position 3 can clear the third spawner on time. In case of failure, try to defend it with either T2 or T3, then create large army and attack after enemy wave came to you again. The wave always go north, to you.

Consider supporting player on position 3 with spells to help him.

After you feel safe, you can come back and capture other wells you do not possess yet.

Position 2 - short brief

Spoiler

Go west.

Power well is defended by 2 S Bandit Vanguards, 2 S Bandit Steelguards and Bandit Sorceress, making it difficult to progress. If you feel confident enough, take power well, it pays off in ~3 minutes.

The first spawner is defended by Bandit Launcher, 2 S Vanguards, 2 S Steelguards, 2 M Healers, Sorceress and M Bouncer.

On a way to 2nd camp there are Bandit Barracks defended by 3 M Stalkers, 2 Healers and Bouncer. It does not spawn any units, therefore you can ignore it. There is power well available, but do not take it before you destroy T3 spawner.

On a way to 2nd camp there is enemy patrol as well, it consists of 2 Bouncers, Healer and Sorceress. The patrol should not respawn, therefore you can kill it in meantime or avoid.

Second spawner is defended by Bandit Wizard Tower, Soulhunter, Windhunter, 3 Skyrakes and 2 Sorceress. Attacks from air with L and M is countered, therefore consider building strong ground force.

If you attack by ground, try to aggro Soulhunter first, and after killing it proceed with securing the area.

Work together with player on position 4 to develop strategy to destroy 3rd camp. You can support him by spells or launch main attack - pathway for player 4 is a bit more difficult, but his position is easier one. The wave always go south.

Position 3 - to be continued

Pure Frost strategies 3/4

Spoiler

You'll need mainly Master Archers, Frost Mages, Home Soil, War Eagle and Area Ice Shield.

Position 1:

Go east.

Create two Frostmages and immediately clear and take nearby power well - focus fire on Crossbowmen. Add Frost Sorceress and total of 5 Master Archers. When timer shows ~1:35 left, use 1 MA squad to aggro Bouncer and retreat. Kill Bouncer --> Spearmen --> 2 Healers while casting 1 Frostbite and 1 Ice Shield on relevant targets. Move your troops a bit to right and then attack Bandit Sniper using Frostbite (O) and Glyph of Frost to zone out Bouncer/Sorceress. Keep using Ice Shield. Do not attack Sorceress, it will aggro more troops and result in your death. Move to the right, add one more MA, Ice Barrier and Homesoil - destroy spawner and Bandit Launcher. Then kill Sorceress, Bouncer, Spearmen, take another well, destroy Launcher and take well + T2. Delete MA and Sorceress but keep Frost Mages.

• Green line is attack targets.
• Pink line is actual movement route.
• Blue circles are good areas for both Northstars - do not place eastern one too far, in order not to trigger defenders of second spawner.

 

I did not find it possible to destroy the next spawner within time limit - I tried out many different strategies. Add War Eagles and prepare to defend another wave - have one Northstar next to monument, one a bit forward. Also add Mountain Rowdy and 2-3 Stormsingers. Use Glyph of Frost in front of Northstar and after it activates add Coldsnap - to freeze the whole wave. With Homesoil and Frostbite destroy Soulhunters, use Gravity Surge to target Windhunter and clear rest of wave. Also use Mountain's Rowdy ability to increase your defence. Keep adding more units. Defend another wave at 11:20 in a similar way and then counter attack - with Home Soil destroy T3 spawner and clear the area.

In case your ally did not clear third spawner, add more War Eagles and other troops and defend the wave on your T2, using the same strategy as before. Add Frostbite on Tortuguns and kill them first. After you are done with the wave, take your T3 and create even larger army. Ask other players to assist you with spells and clear spawner with Northland Drakes and War Eagles after defending a wave. Use Stormsingers with Area Ice Shield and spell support to reach spawner area and Coldsnap to freeze anti air units around.

• Green line represents early game attack route.

Replay Blight Fr1 on Patch #400022 available in files under post. Works on Patch #400023.

Position 2:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

Position 3:

Go east.

Create two Frostmages and add up to two Master Archers. This should be enough to clear area east to your monument. Take the powerwell if you're confident, heal and add 3 more Master Archers. Attack enemy camp by killing enemies one by one, use Frostbite on melee M unit and focus it down. After you cleaned most defenders, add Ice Barrier and cast Home Soil - if you have a lot of time left, then kill ranged units, if around ~30 seconds left, first focus down the camp and use Frostmages to stun enemies, and then finish them. Claim your T2 and all power wells, suicide Master Archers and have total of 3 Frostmages.

From single power well you got earlier, summon War Eagles one by one and start pushing second camp from behind. First attack Bandit Stalker to aggro Bandit Healer, finish both and focus on the spawner - ignore Bandit Sorceress. Frost Mages should be enough to kill incoming wave that consist of only S squads. Use War Eagles to clear single power well nearby the second camp, and keep adding more War Eagles. Before attacking third enemy camp, destroy incoming wave with S squads. With ~8 War Eagles and ~2 Stormsingers (G), you should be able to attack. Use Area Ice Shield first at Stormsingers, wait a moment, and move War Eagles to focus camp, while moving Stormsingers into mid of enemy camp. Cast Coldsnap in the mid to catch as many anti-air units as possible. Use Gravity Surge on aggroed Bandit Windhunters from the north, and cast another Area Ice Shield on War Eagles. After spawner is destroyed, retreat War Eagles, ~5 should be able to survive. Use remaining army to secure your T3 area /feel free to add more troops, then stabilise your defence and help your allies in dealing with their threats. When preparing to attack, you should be able to have some extra power to cast Glyph of Frost or similar spells to help your allies across the map.

• Green line represent ground troops attack path.
• Blue line represent War Eagles attack path.

Replay Blight Fr3 on Patch #400021 available in files under post.

Pure Shadow strategies 3/4

Spoiler

Forsaken, Skeleton Warriors, Motivate, Harvester,  Frenetic Assault Green, Shadow Insect are key cards I use. Shadow T3 spells like Infect, Soulshatter and Frenetic Assaults are very powerful, thanks to that Shadow becomes strong at carrying others, if you can destroy first two camps properly.

In some cases Darkelf Assasins with Motivate should be enough instead of Viridya and Shadow Mages.

Position 1:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Position 2:

Go west.

With 4-5 Forsaken kill two Bandit Vanguards, add 2 Skeleton Warriors, kill Steelguards, Sorceress, Spawner and claim power well. Heal a bit nearby well. You need a lot of micro to keep your units alive. Add one more Forsaken and move to attack around 1:15 - 1:20 - your troops don't need to have full HP. Attack with Forsaken to aggro enemies away from camp, ideally you can send one Forsaken in advance to prepare grounds for your army. Kill all enemies using focus fire, starting from Bouncers and do not attack Bandit Launcher. Use Skeleton Warrior's ability to tank enemy attacks, Frenzy on weaken Forsaken and Motivate on dying one. Move to destroy the camp - use Frenzy on all Forsaken and add ~2 Skeleton Warriors - they will deal with Steelguards in more efficient way. Take monument as fast as possible - to trigger enemy wave early.

Harvester with Viridya and Shadow Mages behind can be strong enough to deal with next enemy camp. Ignore the one which is in-between and do not lose your ranged units to small units wave. With charger Harvester you can finish wave and attack camp. First kill Soulthunter, then split your army - Harvester with Unholy Hero should destroy Spawner, Harvester's army should make chaos and confusion among enemies and tank some damage, Shadow Mages and Viridya shou;d focus fire on Bandit Windhunter - you want it dead and busy, so that it can't stun Harvester.

Try not to aggro Stalkers from position you passed by - it's enough not to attack them, Healers, or Launchers. Do not come too close to Wizard Tower as well. Kill Waystation and finish enemy units. With T3 spells everything should get easier now.

If you killed Bouncer patrol in meantime, they respawned. Be careful for Windhunter patrol as well, it's absolutely annoying. Make a pack of 5-7 Shadow Insects and yolo into last camp. The aim is to get Bandit Tortugun near the Spawner and then cast Frenetic Assault Green on Spawner - it ensures success. With Shadow Insects try to pass by Bandit Lancers before you get under Artillery fire - aggro them to the left and try to go around so they do not slow you down too much.

You are safe - defend from small waves, Windhunter patrols which respawns, and help others. Clear T4 area in your own pace - I used Cultist Masters, Shadow Insects and Viridya to secure the position. With T4 finish the map - there is no need to hurry, take as much time as you need.

Replay "Blight S2" on Patch #400025 available in files under post.

Position 4:

Go west.

With 3 Forsaken attack Footmen, micro not to lose Forsaken, add one more and attack Crossowmen. Take Power Well. Heal, add more Forsaken and attack outpost. There are total of 4 Skyrakes, so if you can kill 2 of them early, it would be good. Destroy tower, and attack enemy M units from left side. Add 2 skeleton warriors, use Forsaken Frenzy and Motivate when relevant. Leave or add new Forsaken to deal with two last Skyrakes and claim your T2. Kill all your units to get void power back.

Spawn Harvester, Viridya, Shadow Mages, kill enemy S wave, summon undead army and attack enemy outpost. You should be able to destroy Spawner with Unholy Hero Harvester without aggroing Soulhunter. When you fight Soulhunter, remember you have to deal with Waystation first. Use Furnace of Flesh to recycle your army and build T3, however try to keep Harvester alive. With Harvester and Undead Army push nearby enemy force - the more you kill the better. Remember to defend from another S wave. Destroy Soulhunter and other units on your way with T3, and spawn 4-5 Shadow Insects. Run Shadow Insects to last spawner, your goal is to cast Frenetic Assault Green on spawner when Tortugun is nearby, it ensures it's destruction.

You are safe - defend from small waves, Windhunter patrols which respawns, and help others. Clear T4 area in your own pace - I used Cultist Masters, Shadow Insects and Viridya to secure the position. With T4 finish the map - there is no need to hurry, take as much time as you need.

Replay "Blight S4" on Patch #400025 available in files under post.

Pure Fire strategies 2/4

Spoiler

Position 4:

Developed by Rankerz in following comment.

Position 1 and 4:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Pure Nature strategies 0/4

Spoiler

Currently not described.

 

Mana Wings can clear first camp on most positions, and second camp on position 4.

On T1 Windweavers are great base, with both Dryad and Shaman.

On T2 Windweavers with support of spells like Curse of Oink, Creeping Paralysis and Ensnaring Roots may be successful (position 3). Deep Ones can yolo snipe enemy second spawner.

Burrower spam is not viable due to Bandit Wizard Tower.

If you can reach T3 in time, Swamp Drakes with Revenge should be enough to snipe last camp.

Fire / Nature strategies 2/4

Spoiler

Position 1:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

Position 2:

Create 3 Nomads (G) and go west. Cast mine and bait 2 Bandit Vanguards into it. Then cast mine again and bait troops small outpost as well. Take power well and add another Nomad.

Create mine in front of Bandit Vanguards and bait them. You should be able to charge into remaining units now. Cast another mine to weaken and knockback Bandit Steelguards, ignore both Bandit Launcher and remaining troops to focus on destruction of the spawner. Take both wells, T2 and destroy Bandit Launcher.

Focus on defence - add 4 Mortal Towers, Breeding Grounds and Rogan Kayle. Use Ensaring Roots to hold enemy army from 2nd spawner, and Mortal Towers to destroy all smaller troops. Bandit Windhunter and 2 Bandit Soulhunters are still alive. Use Rogan's ability "It's the shoes" to prevent them from attacking.  With Mines and another barrage of Mortal Towers destroy Soulhunters, and use Skyfire Drakes to destroy Bandit Windhunter. Use time available to increase your army - 2nd spawner will keep sending waves. Expect another one 3 minutes later, around 12:10. If you trade efficiently, you can use addinotional time to grow large and reliable army.

Since your position is more difficult than position 4, your ally should clear 3rd camp. However it is worth to talk about strategy before match, and support your ally by spells if needed. Wave from 3rd camp goes south.

Strategies for destruction of 2nd camp may be developed later by me.

Replay Blight FN1 on Patch #400021 available in files under post. Strategy by Prajoss.

Nature Shadow strategies

Spoiler

Position 1, 3 and 4:

Developed and described by @MrKrumpli in following thread and video:

 

Stonekin strategies

Spoiler

Position 1 and 2:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Bandits strategies

Spoiler

Position 1:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Lost Souls strategies

Spoiler

Position 1:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Fire Frost strategies

Spoiler

Position 1:

Developed by @GreenSapphire in following thread:

 

Two other guides about Blight Expert:

Find more help in a great video by @LEBOVIN:

 

Empire

Spoiler

Lost Souls are difficult to deal with on rPvE. However, on Empire it's not that bad, the map does not feel particularly difficult to me.

Prepare some T1 M counters to deal with Lost Wanderers and Lost Spellbreakers (knockbacks S units) and some spell/unit support for L Lost Manabeast. If possible, kill Manabeast as last unit, when it dies it gives healing aura to other nearby units. Usual archers with spell support should be fine. Have strong T2 and T3 as well.

Some basic Lost Souls units take increased damage from Humans, and more advanced ones from Beast and Dragonkin creatures, therefore if you can add them to your deck, they should be slightly more efficient. However, they have powerful abilities you should be aware of.

Noticable abilities:

• Lost Vigil - increased strength next to friendly buildings - countered by Dragons.
• Lost Reaver - summons 3 medium crawlers, that explode after 20 seconds dealing large damage on area. Killing crawlers prevents explosion - countered by Dragons.
• Lost Horror - one-hits XL unit from time to time - countered by Beasts.
• Lost Spirit Ship - if gathers enough corpses, explodes dealing massive damage on area - countered by Dragons.
• Lost Dragon - prevents spells, special abilities and ranged attacks on area around it's hit - countered by Dragons.
• Lost Banestone - prevents spells, special abilities and ranged attacks.

 

You must protect Jorne, Mo, Rogan and Ragged King. If Ragged King and Jorne are in danger, you can heal them using various spells like Regrowth or Blood Healing.

Eastern side of map/present:

You will face larger forces, and you must push to allow progress on other side of the map.

Position 3 player the Yellow, aid with some force your ally at getting T2. Then proceed to your side of the map. Do not attack too early, Mo cannot capture the outpost on his onw. There is heavily defended outpost with Jorne, free him by destroying all nearby buildings and units. Proceed to destroy camp after camp. Share some power wells with your ally.

Position 4 player the Teal, push right side of the map and secure T2. Defend both your location from large M units waves, and support your ally at freeing Jorne if aid is required. Push further north to get T3. Destroy next camp and leave some decent defence to near your T3, and help your ally, or clear the nearby outpost, leave some defence and go help your ally. Work together to secure map from the north.

Western side of map/past:

You may need a bit more defensive approach, defend until Eastern side of the map clears it's outposts.

Position 1 player the Green, create wall, defend it with a few archers and aid your ally.  Help him clear T3 area. You do not need to hurry too much to defend outposts, you have a lot of time. Even if all people die in camp, the mission does not end, you need to secure just one out of 4. Secure your T2 area and then proceed to defend all camps. Work together with your ally to clear the map.

Position 2 player the Blue, have something on T2 to kill Lost Vigil. Secure your T3 area with help of your ally. Then destroy nearby outpost, set some defence and aid your ally on his side. Work together to clear the map from north.

Do not free Ragged King until you see, that your allies on Eastern side of map are fine and have enough progress. Ragged King must survive, and if he goes alone on a charge versus Lost Souls, he will fall.

• Lines in colour of a player represent suggested attack paths.
• Purple circles represent locations of chosen Lost Vigils.
• Orange circles represent all locations of Lost Horrors.

Fighting The Red King:

When charges explode, The Red King must be on the Western/Past side of the map in order to weaken it's armor. Therefore, it can either stay there all the time, or be teleported there when charges are ~3/4, or sometimes 2/4.

• On the West enemies spawn from 3 locations on the West. Left corners spawn Charged Souls, and right cave spawns medium enemy waves and Charged Souls.
• On the East enemies spawn in large waves only from right cave.
• From caves Lost Dragons are spawned as well - split your forces or add melee units.
• Charged Soul is Necrofury like Lost Soul unit which grants objective charge upon death. It spawns only on the Western/Past side of the map.
• Do not let any of four Kings die during ritual.

Spells that allow you eliminate Lost Horrors quickly, or prevent them from attacking your army are useful. In my deck I used 1 MA and ~6 Ice Guardians as an opening, Ice Guardians following Ice Barriers efficiently deal with enemy Medium units and kill Manabeast, without any loses.

Replay on Patch #400023 available in files under post. Replay replaced with newer version on 12 I 2021.

Attempt with strong units, and second one with commentary:

 

The Dwarven Riddle - Reference only

Spoiler

Check this guide by MrKrupli:

 

 

Expect little to no progress until February.

Blight Fr3.pmv Blight FN1.pmv Titans Expert.pmv Blight Fr1.pmv Empire Expert.pmv Titans Expert Frost 4.pmv

Blight S2.pmv King of the Giants Expert.pmv King of the Giants Expert Perfect.pmv Blight S4.pmv

Bad Harvest Expert Frost.pmv

Edited March 16, 2021 by Dallarian

[KidSupremoBR]

Thanks, your replays helped a lot, even in a siege of hope. I used a strategy similar to yours at the beginning, but then I used other troops because I didn't have an ice or dreadnhoug avatar, here is the replay of my game, if you can see and evaluate how my game went, I appreciate it.

Siege of Hope ;D.pmv

[Dallarian]

Twelve Players Maps 2/2

Passage to Darkness

Spoiler

An easy map, you do not need any preparations for it. The match may often desynch, however, it usually does not interrupt playing. You are able to finish the map, however the replay may behave in a weird way.

The map is large, and all 3 teams have same shape and objectives. I believe there is no difference between the maps. The only difficulty are XL units spawning around the map, that may be difficult to fight with on T1/T2. However, you can avoid them and progress on the map.

• Harbringer Mortal Aspect - Heals from corpses, do not lose troops next to him. XL melee creature with high damage.
• Harbringer Bestial Aspect - Paralyses with it's attack, up to three targets at once (one by one. Large melee creature.
• Harbringer Dragon Aspect - Targets attacked by Aspect receive more damage. XL Flying long-range Dragon with splash attack.

There are 4 monuments more than needed on the map, so even if you get confused, there will be still enough for every player.
Enemy waves spawn in camps across the map and north eastern enemy fortress. They are easy to defeat. Expect 2 Bandit Footmen, 2 Bandit Skyrakes and Bandit Lancers.
Right side of the map is a bit easier. Therefore, consider sending 2 players either into mid, or top. It does not really matter, though.

There is a mechanics, that allow you to summon opponents from one map to another, however it is not necessary to use. If you're best/fastest team, you can use it to slightly help your allies.

• Purple lines are patrol routes of Aspects.

I have complited the map with 3/4 team, while using Stonekin starter deck, improved by Deepfang, Crystal Fiend and Grinder. You should be fine with almost everything.

Replay on Patch #400023 available in files under post - not desynched.

Attempt with Twilight deck:

 

Ascension

Spoiler

The map is very specific and definitely the more difficult one out of 12 player maps.

When playing, it can be sometimes easy to lose on one of maps, what may lead to frequent loses. It is important to know what to do, and keep trying until it works. Map 1 and Map 2 need specific factions and/ or cards, however Map 3 allow way more freedom.

Jorne's Stand - Map 1 - Team 1

Spoiler

You may need Nature deck, including Mana Wing and Mark of the Keeper. Those cards are excellent on the map, while other factions and strategies have hard time progressing. Other strategies may be successful, including Shadow decks, but do not try those unless you are very experienced player. Mana Wing is not must have for every player, but atleast ~2 should use the card. Technically one experienced player which is adding Mana Wings to mid of map can defend Jorne forever, without any assistance of other players.

Defend your first monument:

When match starts, create Mark of the Keeper between walls, facing into Jorne's direction. Add ~5-6 Windweavers and create two walls facing Jorne's side. Start adding Mana Wings. You generally do not want them to die, so send them in groups and watch over them to prevent their death. Send them near Tunnel Entrances, they will be teleported into centre of the map.

You can add 2-3 Strangleholds to strengthen your first monument defence and reduce wall repair costs. You should be safe from Avengers with that.

Protect the Jorne:

Together with your allies create a strong presence in the center of map. Initially large number of Mana Wings is great. Then, try adding shamans, Marks of the Keeprs and Strangleholds, to help you keep ground presence. Shamans can heal Jorne, however, with Mana Wings only you can hold area for ~20 minutes - Jorne has access to some self-healing abilities. But make sure to keep sufficient forces around. Later higher tier enemies will start spawning, including Drones and Burrowers, and Grimvines from Map 2, so improve your firepower over time.

To get to the area, go to one of tunnel entrances and stay next to it. After a moment your units should disappear from there, and after another moment they should appear in one of locations near centre of the map. If your units are not teleported, move them to slightly different position. "Teleportation area" is a bit small.

Expand:

With ~12-14 Mana Wings, you should be able to step outside the central area and start killing Living Towers and other buildings around. Take T2 and build ~2 Marks of the Keeper next to it. Proceed to clean and secure inner area to get access to more monuments and power wells, and wait till other players finish their tasks. Protect T3 and T3 areas with some towers/forces, to hold patrolling troops.

 

• Green circles show location of tunnels, they allow you to safely travel to the centre of map.
• Blue circles show suggested T2 locations.

Yes, you could try to make Windweavers + Shamans to get access to your T2 by destroying walls, but you do that at the cost of defence, and you can use Mana Wings for the same task anyway.

Later I add Fountain of Rebirth to heal Mana Wings when they are clearing area for my T2. Thornbarks with Root Network can greatly help defence, Amii Monument and Wheel of Gifts were used purely for fun:

Another successful deck - based on root mechanics.

Replay on Patch #400023 available in files under post.

Some inspiration:

 

Viridya's Sanctum - Map 2 - Team 2

Spoiler

You may need a deck that makes use of Frost or Nature cards. Check "Viridya's Spirit can be stopped or slowed by following effects:" below for more.

Securing T2:

There is no need to hurry. Your T2 is located in front of your T1, however where to go depends on your plan, confidence and situation. All Monuments are defended by 2 Living Towers, Primal Defender in Anti-air mode, 2 Maulers and 2 Werebeasts.

Face enemy attack at ~1:25-1:30 , heal, create large force and then counterattack. Aim at destruction of one Living Tower and then retreat for more troops. Repeat process as many times as needed. Going too greedy my result in loss of army, and it's important to have solid early game. If you can, aggro Avenger from time to time, the faster your team hits 15 kills, the better. Make sure that your T2 area is safe and claim T2 with power wells. Usage of Towers is advices, it can greatly help you at clearing Avengers. Also keep in mind, that Werebeasts and Maulers will keep coming all the time throughout the game.

Therefore it is advices to keep 1-2 towers in your first monument as well, to destroy troops that break through your main defence line, specially in mid game.

Position 6 player the Blue:

Your T2 is hardest area to claim, but very rewarding as well. High risk, high gain. There is ramp in front of it, which allows to aggro two Avengers at once, and helps enemy reinforcements to come faster. However, if you can hold the area, you will quickly accelerate through killing progress, being able to kill easily 3 out of 4 Avengers in your area, if tower and unit placement is correct. Use unit/ tower near top ramp to aggro 3rd Avenger. Or, you can take bottom monument area instead, for greater security. The choice is yours.

Similar situation happen to Position 5 player the Green, however, it is easier not to fight Avengers in this situation, making it very good spot.

Position 8 player the Teal:

You have access to powerful artifact. Create 1-2 anti-air towers, add artifact to control group and use it as often as possible. It generate bonus power for every team member, greatly helping both Map 2 and Map 3. The stronger Map 2 is, the easier Map 3 get.

 

Killing Avengers and Grimvines:

Position Towers so that they can aggro Avengers. Cannon Towers and Lost Launchers are usually the best, however Living Towers and others can be good enough as well. When the Team kills total of 15 Avengers, all players within the Team receive nice power boost of 250, allowing players in weaker position to recover and improve, and stronger players to progress quicker through the map. Make sure to have some form of anti-air. Mana Wings tend to respawn and are annoying.

If you can intercept safely intercept and kill Grimvines on your paths, with usage of towers for example, then you will greatly aid Skylords on Map 3. However, it is not a priority, if you do not feel confident, focus on development of map control to be able to react to Viridya's Spirit.

Create map control by fortifying particular key locations, with usage of towers and/or units. Make sure to spread ground presence across the map, and prepare swift / key units to be able to react to appearing Viridya, this is the priority. In the meantime, try to cover all 4 paths and kill Avengers.

• Good locations to setup defence.
• Usually you can choose between having force that intercepts units as they spawn, or cover both sides of a particular highground.
• There are many other useful high ground areas, but if you want to use them, provide enough damage to kill enemy targets which do not slow down to engage you.

Virydya's Spirit:

Spirits spawn randomly. It can be ~10:00 or ~16:00 You can't miss that, the map becomes greener and Moon shouts relevant comment. After Viridya spawns, you must stop her from reaching any of portals for 120 seconds. If she succeeds, the map ends automaticly. You should have minimum of 1 effect available from proper list below to be able to cover your side. Since effect chain is necessary (with an exception for Taunt), it is advised to have 2 forms of control effects, or to cooperate with your teammates. The Spirit deals large damage near Viridya, therefore it's not adviced to come close.

After first Spirit, next ones can be spawned very soon, and there will be neither visual nor sound notification. Therefore watch minimap often and chec if letter "V" is somewhere, it marks Spirit's position. Spirits spawn very randomly and frequency depends on luck. Sometimes she may bug inside the inner area and not leave it at all.

Viridya's Spirit can be stopped or slowed by following effects:

• Freeze - Glyph of Frost, Coldsnap are two most reliable and popular forms.
• Taunt - Lightblade is absolutely MVP on the map, being easily accessible and cheap. Usage of taunt stops Viridya from walking, but does not make her follow taunting unit. Other form of taunts can be successful, if accessed. Spirit may get bugged and stop moving at all till end of the timer, and that's perfect. Frenetic Assault is form of taunt and works as well.
• Slow - Frostbite is a reliable source.
• Knockback - Large creature knockback seem to work, therefore Aggressor is fine. Keep in mind, that you have to hit Viridya and she may go into random direction - may kill your troops, or knockback may throw her into portal.
• Paralysis - Creeping Paralysis works. However, there is a bug that interferes with Freeze effect and turns it off, therefore be careful.
• Path block - while usually path blocking does not work and Viridya just moves through all, I managed to block one of paths. I am working to check if it's viable strategy.

Viridya's Spirit cannot be stopped by following effects:

• Sleep - she get struck by lightnight every few seconds that wake her up. However, sleep can be used every dozen of seconds to stop her for ~2 seconds. Not worth the effort, but if you are desperate, it's better than nothing.
• Root - she is immune to such effect.
• Polymorph - Curse of Oink does not work either.
• Disabling special ability - Mark of the Keeper cannot prevent unknown, however effects from Mark of the Keeper or Rogan Kayle do not stop enemies from moving, so usage of these effects should not stop Viridya unless the script is broken. However, it could perhaps turn of her's lightnights, allowing you to sleep her and or body block - to be checked.
• Teleportation - Nether Warp and Deep One will not help you.

Fire barriers kill all units on touch, however if you want you, can can use a unit close to the fire to spawn a creature inside the inner area. Also, when fire falls, 4 Viridya's Spirit will be summoned. Work together with your allies to kill them all, you should not have large problems with that.

Viridya's Aspects:

They go into four different sides. Gather with your allies in mid and destroy them quickly. They may have healing auras, so they to burst them. As far as I know melee units reduce their healing rate. They also have access to many spells. However, killing them is not very difficult.

 

Lost Soul decks can be very powerful on this map, however Stonekin, other Frost variants or Pure Nature can be fine as well. Viridya start spawning after 30 Avengers are killed - if you can communicate with your teammates not to kill Avengers and get T3 or T4, you may be okay with other factions. However, it will delay progress on other maps, so I do not advise that.

I used Lightblade (P), Frostbite (P), Glyph of Frost and Coldsnap as CC sourcers. Frostbite was also useful to cast on Maulers in early game. Cannon Tower and Frost Crystal provided me with defence in many areas, War Eagles cleaned out T3 and T4 locations, and Lyrish Knights with Homesoil were in case I had chance to intercept Grimvine. Successful decks usually are: something with Frost on T2, or pure Nature. If you are very confident that you can reach and hold T3 before 10 minutes in the game, then you can play any deck with knockback vs Large targets available on T3, but I do not advise to do this.|

Replay on Patch #400023 available in files under post.

A bit old attempt, many changes happened in game since then, however the idea remains the same.

Also see:

Corrupted Forest - Map 3 - Team 3

Spoiler

The most flexible out of three maps, if you do not want to play neither Nature nor Frost, try to get a position here.

Your objective is to destroy Portal Guardians, XL units with 5000 XP and paralysis attack. Get strong T1 with some defence, and do not hurry. Viridya's Avenger will appear from portals, make sure to keep them under control. Make sure to defend yourself and slowly conquer the map.

You will face many Living Towers, Marks of the Keeper, Swamp Drakes, Grimvines and many Rooted Enemies. Together with Viridya's Avengers, that is a lot of forces coming at you.

When you destroy all Guardians, expect large enemy waves from portal to come at you.

• Blue circles show suggested T2 locations. Work together with your ally to get there.

Decks with long-range units and L counters should be successful on the map. Example of a successful deck, Batariel deck:

Replay on Patch #400023 available in files under post.

I could not find any inspiration to link there.

 

 

Ascension Expert 1.pmv Ascension Expert 2.pmv Ascension Expert 3.pmv

Passage to Darkness Expert.pmv

Edited February 5, 2021 by Dallarian

[Metagross31]

great guide! I would recommend though to describe the lost banestone strat for siege of hope exp, since you already linked to @LEBOVIN's video, where he describes it.

[Dallarian]

Given replays do not work on newest patch, and therefore they will be quickly outdated even if I make new ones.

However, within a few next months there may be possibilty to watch the replays again, so I leave them for reference.

 

We could use more online videos in this case, and my internet is too weak, so I'd appreciate if some people finished whole campaign on Expert and put it on Youtube ^^

[KidSupremoBR]

4 hours ago, Dallarian said:

Dados replays não funcionam no patch mais recente e, portanto, ficarão rapidamente desatualizados, mesmo se eu fizer novos.

No entanto, dentro de alguns meses, pode haver a possibilidade de assistir aos replays novamente, então eu os deixo para referência.

 

Poderíamos usar mais vídeos online neste caso, e minha internet está muito fraca, então eu agradeceria se algumas pessoas terminassem toda a campanha no Expert e colocassem no Youtube ^^

Now that I was doing the entire specialist campaign seeing your replays, there is this update and the map I need to see most is the replay of the nightmare fragment because my ice and nature deck does not have the necessary units to get over

[Dallarian]

There are many addinotional ways to complete maps, mentioned by co-posters here. They are okay, however they are usually against spirit of my thread, therefore I do not include those in my posts. However, I believe some players got help from those more specific post instead.

Thank you very much for adding more value to the thread.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Dallarian

[KidSupremoBR]

6 hours ago, Dallarian said:

4:30:00

 

Thanks

[Dreamer001]

So first of all thanks to Dallarian for this great guide and everyone who helped with the information. I've been playing battleforge since EA times, but did learn a lot new tricks here. 

I want to add two tricks for players struggling with the Nighmare maps. I've beaten both maps on expert solo with them.

1) Nightmare Shard:

In Nightmare Shard the witch spawn group/patrol consists of 1 Twilight Witch, 2 Vilebloods and after a while 2 Twilight Whisperers. There are 4 witch patrols (1 from each camp type?). They spawn alternating at east and west camps. If you don't kill the witches, no new patrols will spawn.
The easiest way to do this is to kill only the witches on the east side (easy to do at your wall in the blue rectangle) and to trap the witches on the west side with MotK and a bait (e.g. Primal Defender). If the bait is within the aggro-radius, the witch will walk inside the MotK and therefore can't attack, walk away and draws aggro again. 
The best spot I found for MotK is on the south-west cliff. I placed the Primal Defender in Skywatch-mode right next to it. Be carefull for air units, if they kill the bait, the witches will walk to the Shard resulting in a loss. I solved this with a total of 2 MotK and 2 Primal Defenders. 

If you've successfully trapped all 4 witches, only single crawlers and single air units will come for you. That means you can essentially just walk through the map at your own pace.

The best point is this: You can start with the Mana Wing strategy and after that there's enough time for building the MotK and Primal Defender on the cliff.

I actually never tried the strategy with a second player, but I guess it'll become even easier.

A warning at this point: Moon is very annoying if you trap witches close to the shard... You can see it kind of in the screenshot.

 

2) Nightmare's End

This map is indeed a pain but instead of defending your T1 against these strong waves, you can also just trap the first waves. There are actually just 4 spawn waves coming to your T1 - 2 from the south and 2 from the north. At the beginning a spawn waves consists of 2 melee squads and 1 Shaman. If you kill them, soon bigger waves with large enemies will come. If you trap them, no new waves will bother you. I did this with 3 Shamans in the north and 3 Shamans in the south for the first wave. As soon as the second wave reaches the first wave, I added 2 more Shamans and 1 non-attacking Dryad to each side. A bit of micro may be needed.
If you successfully trapped the waves like this, you can take the T2 in the middle of the map. No spawn will bother you at this point, so you can just build up several thousand energy and steamroll the map. I recommend taking T3 for Amii-Monument in the northwest without destroying the shrine and then step-by-step build up T4 defence at each spawn point. You can see an example of a perfectly working defense in the screenshot below. Also you can get a glimpse of my Fire Stalker army and if you look closely at the time: over 30 minutes have passed and I didn't need to upgrade my defenses over this.

 

Another warning: Do NOT underestimate the waves at the end. Even if you build T4-towers all over the map, you may still need strong units.

 

 

PS: I think of myself as a mediocre player because I'm neither good at micro nor good at multi-tasking. Meaning everyone can learn how to do even the Nightmare maps solo on expert atleast with these tricks.

PPS: I didn't optimize these strategies, probably there are even easier version of them (e.g. MotK usage may make it easier to trap the waves).

 

                                                                                                        

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Dreamer001

[xs0ulLess]

On 1/6/2021 at 5:07 PM, Dreamer001 said:

 (If someone tells me how to properly screenshot, I can show my exact placements.)

 

Windows button + PrintScreen button

location: C:\Users\Win10 Sux\Pictures\Screenshots

also, you sneaky 'lil boy, playing with MotK haha. I guess Lost Souls Banestone works too?

[Dallarian]

Time for update.

With Mo, I have covered 20/26 maps, what is 77% of maps and ~45% of work.

I allowed myself to put everything to Word, and came up with a few interesting facts:

• 59 pages A4 (not edited to have nicer form/larger gaps).
• Microsoft Word is awful word text editor - I considered publishing the thread as pdf as well, however there are some annoying problems. If you would be interested in such form, let me know.

I was surprised by 59 pages part. It turned out to be a small book, and with spoiler sections it looks really short. And it's still nothing compared to how much work Skylords Reborn team have put into this project. Thank you very much Devs!

 

I came across a few errors, also some ideas in terms of description format have evolved over time and I am aware of poor quality of some descriptions, so I may be working from time to time to polish them. Right now only 4 player maps are left and it's difficult and even more time consuming to cover them, as you can see on example of Blight, so do not expect anything coming anytime soon except for King of the Giants and Bad Harvest.

Also I got an idea to merge together all posts at some point using some evil tricks I discovered, but if it was going to happen, it'd be after I cover all the maps.

Another poll is open for next week, I'd appreciate some more feedback.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Dallarian

[__luc]

The strategy for Raven's End is very easy (because it is one of the easiest expert maps) and might be nice to put up as it rewards a legendary card.

Conquering the middle lane first should be no problem and any deck can do it (maybe give some tips like having knockback resistant units for the enemy fire stalkers). Then move the shield so it blocks the center camp (on the bottom) from reaching T1. Prepare for an attack from an Ravenheart. It can be killed this first attack by using oink/freeze and a strong enough force, but if it flees at 50% health it is also fine, as killing it later is easier (it will regenerate to full health). Then go to T2 for the second player and take your time to build a solid defense from the center part. After is this set up, one of the player (or both if defense is strong enough/multitasking skills are good enough) can easily conquer the remaining bases.

Lending out a monument to your teammate greatly reduces the map's difficulty, as T4 can be acquired before conquering the top camp this way. Also, T3 turrets (or even T4 if you dare to risk your last monument) can be build to defend from the center.

It is very important not to do the center until all other monuments are bought, as clearing this area will start the end sequence. It is possible to clear most of it early to prevent some spawns; just leave the two towers near the portal on the bottom alive. Clearing the center is not recommended though, as all spawn camps have to be destroyed to prevent attacks and this will be very difficult with low tiers. However, given the right deck it is possible to do and saves having to defend. When doing this strategy, it is possible to keep the bosses alive, as they will not leave their camp to attack your base (just rush the spawners).

 

[Volin]

Hello Skyfolks,

Not only does this masterpiece deserve another push, but I have a question regarding "Ascension".
Do you ( @Dallarian) possibly also have a deeper insight into how the 3 maps influence each other and what triggers what there?

Did I understand correctly that the progress on map 3 is the decisive step towards the boss fight? Map 1 actually has "only" the task (together with Jorne) to survive?

But what triggers the different phases on Map 2, is it the Avenger Counter on Map 2 or the progress on Map 3? Do you understand what I mean?

Is there any other connection between the 3 maps, where a certain progress triggers an "event" on another map?

I would be very grateful for a small exchange, or a small insight, into the topic.

 

If you can summarize, so di it here. But if it's more of an exchange/conversation, happy to PM or Discord #Volin8101

 

[Blashyrkh]

20 hours ago, Volin said:

Hello Skyfolks,

Not only does this masterpiece deserve another push, but I have a question regarding "Ascension".
Do you ( @Dallarian) possibly also have a deeper insight into how the 3 maps influence each other and what triggers what there?

Did I understand correctly that the progress on map 3 is the decisive step towards the boss fight? Map 1 actually has "only" the task (together with Jorne) to survive?

But what triggers the different phases on Map 2, is it the Avenger Counter on Map 2 or the progress on Map 3? Do you understand what I mean?

Is there any other connection between the 3 maps, where a certain progress triggers an "event" on another map?

I would be very grateful for a small exchange, or a small insight, into the topic.

 

If you can summarize, so di it here. But if it's more of an exchange/conversation, happy to PM or Discord #Volin8101

 

I've asked a similar question in Discord. Answer from Treim was this:

"Tasks on Ascension for each map: Map 1 = Keep Jorne alive Map 2 = Kill waves and Avengers so they don't reach Map 1 & 3. After 15 Avengers are killed you get a energy boost (I think 300). After 30 Avengers are killed Viridya starts spawning and you need to stop her from reaching the portals (Easiest way is to use Coldsnap to immobilize her and then use the taunt ability of lightblade (a single application is enough to root her in place permanently)). After map 3 has killed all the portal guardians, map 2 has to stop all 16 avengers of a wave from reaching a portal (if map 2 has stopped all avengers of the wave before map 3 finished the last guardian, the end is also triggered on map2. Last Goal is to kill the 4 Viridyas in the middle of the map. Without melee unit they can have crazy sustain so at least send a lightblade or sth along those lines to attack her. Map 3 = kill portal guardians"

Edited January 21, 2021 by Blashyrkh

[Volin]

Thank you for the Sum up mate. You have also an idea on the portal switches of map2, I tried around with those and tried to observe what happens when you 'close the portals' but I couldn't figure it gut.

[Blashyrkh]

 

I have no idea too 

[Cocofang]

Nightmare's End Deck

Everyone and their mom does this map with T2 flyers or some Amii Monument snoozefest, but I wanted to try something else and it was extremely effective.

One part of the strategy is something I learned from another player on Crusade and it can be applied here as well: Stack like 5 Defenders and one Crystal Fiend on top of each other, have them hunker down and build two Northern Keeps behind them. You can defend the bottom wall indefinitely with this approach. You open the gate, stack Defenders behind it and they will hold. When waves get stronger sometimes you have to use the Keeps ability.

Bandits can do this even better with Commandos B and both types of Retreats, they hold forever without needing any attention at all. But early Juice Tanks are a big deal.

Top wall gets defended by the army of Stone Tempests, Fiends and Defenders that you build up to eventually push. Let Defenders tank for the time being with Northern Keep support. You can also add one Tempest behind the Defenders to feel more comfortable at the bot wall.

Once you are comfortable (I did it with like 9 Tempests or sth) you go top. Get your Defenders in range of the artillery and have them hunker down. They will tank the cannon for quite some time with Ray of Light and Crystal Fiend support. Have the Tempests clean up whatever reaches your Defenders. Roots if necessary. Focus on keeping Tempest alive, Defenders are fodder for distraction. Then push Tempests in to clean up the artillery cannon. Finish the rest of the camp. You need your Tempests to defend until you got a few Necroblasters going. After that you can switch to Ashbone for the top mid camp. Leave two Tempests as aggro magnets in front of your Necroblasters. Originally did it with Swampdrake support but I think Lost Horror is better. Or just plain Ashbones.

Ashbones wreck bot mid camp as well. You will notice your Defenders are still all fine at your initial orb. Last hurdle is T4 but Ashbones and Lost Horrors with spell support have insane AoE clear. Mid can hold with Necroblasters and your eventual T4 army. Necroblasters can also hold your orbs. But expect to maybe lose one.

Juice Tanks make energy a non-issue. Spam spells to support your teammate if necessary. I even added Offering to the deck because I was mostly gated by charges in the end. 2x Fountain of Rebirth (in Construction Hut area) is a 90 energy investment for a permanent 25/3sec reg. That's massive for the T2 push, Defenders on defense and for Ashbone. Ashbones have crazy synergy with HoTs overall.

T3 and T4 is flexible in this deck. Can use most other things instead. The important thing is T2. Tempest, Defenders+Keep, Crystal Fiend, Juice Tank. Those are the center pieces, I'd say. Budget option would be Razorshard G instead of Fiend. But heals makes base defense and top push much more comfortable.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Cocofang

[__luc]

Very easy and I think even cheap (in bfp) strategy for Slave Master provided through the attached replay file. Here, we even messed some small parts up a bit, such as the start and me going for 2nd slave camp before getting t4 for my mate. We did use some expensive cards, but none were vital for the strategy. Construct and ensnaring roots were the only "expensive" cards which the defense relied upon. I like to use grimvine or colossus to go through the fire trap, but Mo can be used, especially with the charge (break wall beforehand and start charge just before going into the fire).
The general route from OP still applies, however, we never go for the teal route.
One thing to note, don't kill any bandit or camps which aren't directly in the way. In the replay, you can see that even the camp next to first t4 (which doesn't attack without provoking) can fight twilight dragons if needed.

First build some units which can clear the first camp, nothing special. Turn the fire trap on. TURN THIS TRAP OFF WHEN DRAGONS START SPAWNING. If it goes on for too long (sometimes even after 3 dragon spawns), the slaves might die. After turning it off, the defender should stop helping the attacker and start building a defense.
The defender will always defend t2, but at the start this is trivial (mostly snipers and witches), so he can help the attacker push faster.
Then leave some units at t1 because it will get attacked, but wait for the first wave of enemies first (we forgot this).
After this, make fire stalkers to kill any towers and spawners on the right hill. Use some cheap units as bait for the snipers so the firestalkers survive. Don't kill anything on the right. These bandits can help kill some twilight if things go wrong and they are no trouble for us.
Then, buy the power well over the hill on the right side and clear till you get to the north-western shielded fire trap. The attacker should have t4 now and the defender t3. When you get close to t4, dinos are released, Just run away and let the dinos fight the bandits and return shortly after to kill the remaining NPCs.
I decided to start clearing the area around the shielded fire trap with a flying t4, but it might be better to clear t4 for defender first. Don't go through the wall (or break it) to the teleporter and the "boss" on the way to t4. Also, don't clear behind t4, if you go to for there is a chance of starting the end sequence.
Now clear the part of the 2nd slave camp where the slaves have to walk and kill the slave master (can't free the slaves yet, is for later). This is a relatively small part. When this is done, flying units can start clearing the northern teleporter (if they are near the slaves) and ground units can go to the wall which was previously ignored. Go to Ravenheart en free the slaves. On your way there, kill all scoutships. Note that mines spawn by the slave under the Ravenheart, so be prepared to heal him if necessary. Bring the slaves to the portal and retried with all units except one tank unit. It doesn't matter if this unit dies. I like to add Mo and all the slaves to a group, as they sometimes get distracted to start walking somewhere else entirely. In the meanwhile, be sure to send a unit to the second slave camp. Sometimes this unit can't break the cages. Maybe it happens if he arrives before the mission tells you to free them, but I'm not sure. It is always solved if I send Mo there in this case. Free the slaves and send them to the teleporter. If you do this correctly. the "boss" doesn't even leave his camp (see replay for exact details if it doesn't work out). Ignore Moon babbling about a southern path through another flame trap and just take the short path to the teleporter.

GG, map complete.

While the attacker was doing all of this, the defender just has to spam towers (Mark of the Keeper might help) and use really strong t4. Usually, these are very slow/immobile. We used constructs which decimated the camp+twilight. Entangle will help a ton with killing the twilight abominations before getting a strong enough defense. If defense starts failing it is no problem at all, as long as the twilight can be delayed unit the second group of slaves if brought to the portal.

Note, never kill any units in the end sequence, unless you are 100% sure you don't have Mo or any slave selected. If you accidentally kill Mo or any of the slaves, it will insta-fail the mission.

slave.pmv