"The Road Home" MAP BY: Grayson Towler E-MAIL: graysont@rigroup.com CONTEST: Spring 1997 DESCRIPTION: (I didn't know how long "brief" meant, so here I included a really short and slightly longer description) (short) - A powerful army awaits you back at home... but can you get to it before your enemies get to you? (longer) - The sorceress Faelina and her twin, the warrior Faelira, are defenders of a forest realm. The woodland peace is shattered by an invasion of evil. Now, Faelira must hold off the invaders with what forces she can muster, while Faelina seeks a safe path home through enemy lines to reach Evenstar, where an army awaits that can defeat even the powerful invaders who are trying to destroy her beloved homeland. (I know you didn't ask for this, but I'm including it anyway:) STRATEGY TIPS: - The North Road: This is a flat-out sprint. You have to be smarter than the Barbarian player on your heels, because he's faster than you. Your forces should be strong enough to punch through the enemy lines in front of you, but if the hoarde from the West catches up to you, you're toast. Don't take the dwarves, they'll just slow you down, and you should be able to get through without them. Build up the dwarvish town to a castle so you can recruit heroes that can distract the barbarian from the West. Leave as many resources as you can bear along the way, because the enemy will probably take time from pursuing you to pick them up. - The Middle Road: This one requires that you be a little craftier than the others, and perhaps a little luckier. A good strategy is build up the Elf town to a castle and hole up there for a while, sending out sacrificial heroes (Warlocks are best - you can make them go quickly by taking away the Centaurs and they come equipped with Scouting) to get a look at the land. If you find a safe path home, go for it, but be sure you have enough territory cleared to spot enemies coming your way. If one of the sacrificial heroes can make it home, that's fine too. Remember to bring the Phoenix army back to Faelina, though, because you lose if she gets killed. The Elves can help a hero clear out the monsters on the way, so dispense them wisely. You get more help from Faelira's blue forces on this one, but the enemy is very strong. - The South Road: You MIGHT be able to take this the same way as the Middle Road, but you'd be much better off going for the back door approach to the west. The yellow player has a reasonably dangerous force, but hardly as bad as the Necromancers. In fact, he may even decide not to pick a fight with you if your troops are still reasonably strong after the trip. Take the Unicorns with you by all means - you'll need them. - Faelira: If you play the blue player (which you only can in multiplayer), you have to be pretty selfless. You aren't going to win this fight yourself, but your ally can win it for you. If she gets home, then you've done your job. That means you take out as many enemies as you can and, more importantly, keep them focused on you rather than her. A good way to do this is to find a town over which you and the enemy can squabble, where he'll focus his energies. When Faelina chooses her path, your forces must be concentrated there. The others should focus on mustering resources to feed the fight along the path that Faelina chooses. DESIGN NOTES: It was kind of fun to have to use mostly forest terrain! I especially enjoyed discovering that you can put seaweed patches on land, which gives the swamps a particularly eerie look. I initially considered making this an "Ultimate Artifact" quest, so you won if you got home, but then I decided that it would be much more satisfying to be able to stomp your enemies into the ground personally after you've survived the harrowing journey back home. Once you get the Phoenixes, the battle is really yours, but by that time I think you'll really have grown to hate your enemies so much for all the grief they've caused you that you really deserve the pleasure of wiping them out yourself.