Another hard button-mashing campaign by Flower Fairy. I played on Normal. This one is a tad more difficult than the first one.
The story is more down-to-earth and less high school drama.
Chapter 1:
Easy.
Chapter 2:
I managed to destroy the orange undead base first by rushing it immediately after the cutscene ends with mass swordsmen, using their defend ability to make them tankier. Then, I managed to attack purple alongside Genn's forces for ease of doing. Your base can be defended with towers and swordsmen, and ordering arcane towers to burn any mana from casters on each wave.
Chapter 3:
Red didn't attack much and eventually got stuck at the edge of their cliff, which made dealing with the other undead a lot easier since the mission was already too hard as it was. I killed them with mass spellbreakers and priests for dispelling the raised skeletons.
Chapter 4:
Easy, compared to other missions, your allies are good enough and you can cheese the southern enemy base a bit with your heroes.
Chapter 5 and the interlude before it:
Getting some Shadows of Hatred vibes here, eh?
The author did say that she took inspiration from Sclammerz though. That dark, shadowy boss at the end is tougher than the ones on the final chapter. You've just got to time your spells and disables so that you get the most out of each second they last. It still took a long while to kill it.
Chapter 6:
This is where it starts to get harder. Mass Air Battleships from the workshop (around 10 or more) with full upgrades is the easiest way to win. Once you have got them, attack the demon base where that demon hero is and kill her so that the elves join you. You can cheese them by abusing the ships' attack range.
Chapter 7:
I actually didn't find the runestone on my first run of this, and had to fend off without those bonuses. It's doable and you can still win though. At the end of it, the A'dal was at like 400 hp and there were over 300 enemies surrounding it just before the timer ran out. BTW, the answer to the Runestone's question is "Mothman".
Chapter 8:
This one was rather easy. You can take out initial waves with just your heroes or use Maiev to have them chase her around and buy yourself some time. You can't destroy any bases before finishing the first quest but you can kind of softlock the green base (which is closest to you) by destroying all their buildings as usual. The acolytes will eventually rebuild what they can, BUT they will only do so next to their gold mine. Since that's a tight spot they are never able to rebuild everything and you have less enemies to deal with in the end.
Lor'themar's forces destroyed almost all of the orange buildings, but their whole army ended up surrounding the undead dragon hero, and it couldn't attack my forces so I just moved in to call it a day and could ignore the dragon. Purple base was easy.
Chapter 9:
Oh look, we've got to save Grommash from the demons again
.
Capturing Grom is easy: just take Akama there, send in his three summons first so they distract the orcs, then move Akama in to capture him and GTFO, use his ultimate to mitigate all damage.
Killing the creeps around the map nets you extra gold so that's good.
Another gold mine with not that much gold. Seriously, Flower Fairy?
I made a kind of mixed army of healers and Darkslayers and timed my attack right after the brown base attacked Thrall. The brown base is the least defended and easiest to take if you attack right after their wave is defeated.
Now, here's the thing: I tried to set up expos at those two gold mines to the north on either side of the map to no avail because they would always be attacked. HOWEVER, if you set up an expo at the brown orc base gold mine (I built mine as close to the south as possible), the other orcs won't send waves to it and you can leave it undefended and mine safely.
Again, make mass Spirit Dragons (mass air like on chapter 6) and get them full upgrades. I'm starting to see a pattern here. Also, it's nice to have some healers next to the fountain of mana as a makeshift healing fountain.
The Draenei from the optional quest give a +3 to all stats tome so that's good.
EDIT: I just redid the mission on hard difficulty and the strat was as follows:
- Upgrade to tier 3 whilst you go get Grom back with Akama alone.
- Get a mixed army of Darkslayers and healers and some Spirit Dragons if you can.
- Attack the brown orc base right after their wave attack ends at Thrall's. Hopefully you won't be overwhelmed by yellow or green in the meantime. Build some towers at your base.
- Once you take out brown, set up an expo at its goldmine and leave it undefended. The orcs won't go attack it. Now you've got enough gold, and the rest is easy.
- Mass Darkslayers, some healers + 6 Spirit Dragons and full upgrades on them also works well.
Chapter 10:
Get the Phoenixes ASAP and train them en masse with full upgrades. They seem to be the only way to win. The author even hints at it in the quest's description. Maiev's Q shines on this mission. Also, what's with her desire for using others? Girl is still as stubborn as she was in TFT. I'm glad she becomes more of a protagonist as the campaign draws to an end.
Also, LOL at the mystical and mysterious phoenixes just casually saying "ok, we will help you."
Chapter 11:
Nice to have the people back together. The boss battles are fairly easy if you time He Xiaoshu and Maiev's Qs to get the most out of each second. Thrall's ward and Yrel for healing. You can easily burn the bosses' mana pools with Akama's summons.
Sargeras makes an entrance out of the blue and it's another long boss fight like in chapter 5. Good stuff.
Epilogue (Eternal Radiance):
There is a sense of continuity since the cutscenes acknowledge Maiev and her doings in the previous campaign. That's nice, but... suicide? Didn't see that coming.
Aftermath:
I never knew they gave students that much summer homework in China
. I was never given any for summer back in my day.
And more drama! NGL, I Was kind of missing it.
Also, why is it that modding communities tend to have so many dramas and beefs amongst members? You see the same thing amongst those who mod Skyrim and Mass Effect to name a few, especially on the Nexus.
Rate: 5/5
Chapeau! Flower Fairy, you've done it again. Kudos to Tulee.
Played on patch 1.26 with no issues
Approved
