Map Name: 7th Voyage of Sinbad (7th_Voyage_Sinbad.h4c) Author: datarush (Walt Huber E-mail Address:databits@pacbell.net Map Type: Singleplayer w/computer opponents Map Size: Large with Underground Game Version: HOMM4 1.3 playable Language: English Special Win: Kill/Imprison Sokurah (eventually) Special Loss: Lose Sinbad Special Other: NONE Map-Testers: jixie@aol.com pookywooky1@hotmail.com Description: Based loosely on the movie of the same name, which in turn is loosely based on Tales From a Thousand and One Nights. Play as Sinbad in his quest to restore the princess to the full-sized woman of his dreams. The Abassid Empire is at its height in the 8th century when these legendary events take place. Additional Info: Player has Order Town creatures with assistance of some Life and Nature creatures. Game was tested at Advanced Game, Stationary Guards. Be patient about getting higher level creatures. It builds character to fight with armies made up of the lower level creatures. There are a lot of scripted events to make this map more of a unique story. I enjoyed the fact that the file name made it easy to load in the game and find in the folders! SPOILERS: WARNING!!! SPOILER INFORMATION FOLLOWS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! SPOILERS: WARNING!!! SPOILER INFORMATION FOLLOWS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! SPOILERS: WARNING!!! SPOILER INFORMATION FOLLOWS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! SPOILERS: WARNING!!! SPOILER INFORMATION FOLLOWS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! SPOILERS: WARNING!!! SPOILER INFORMATION FOLLOWS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! 7th Voyage of Sinbad Spoilers and Walkthrough There is no doubt more than one way to win the scenario. This is the way I did it, and possibly somewhat coincidentally the way I designed the map to be played. I don't think that there is an easy cheat to beat the map, but if you find one please let me know. This narrative won't tell you ever last little thing you should do on every turn but you should figure out the details. The map is pretty easy in the beginning. Combat gets much harder once you get deeper into Colossa, and sometimes will be impossible unless you are well prepared for the creatures that you face. Gold will be a bit scarce at the beginning but you will likely have more than you can spend later in the game. I played with Sinbad and Harufa (SH) in one army almost all the time, just splitting them up to get Mines/Treasure/etc...SH are a about Level 12 and 9 instead of 6 & 4, and come with some basic weaponry. They'll level up fairly quickly and can get quite powerful by game's end, but right now they can get into battles without dropping like flies but may sometimes need to be in the back row. Starting out The only Lumber Mills and Ore Mines are South of Baghdad across the bridge. Cross the bridge after SH visit the Altars and Wheel. Send the available army out from Baghdad at the same time, and meet up around the Trough. Get the Treasure sites under your flag then attack Chandra: It just has the default troops for defense. Send a Halfling across the Wood Bridge; he can start up the Wood Pile and get some loose wood. Meanwhile get the little Treasure near the 1st level building by the Pond, and take whatever creatures you can to the Swamp. The Halflings are essential here. Blow past the Trogs and attack the Hydras;if you do it quickly there's only 2-3 of them and with some simple spells like Bless and Precision on the Halflings there may not even be a Melee. Take over the Abandoned Mine and start up the Ore Deposit. Complete most of the challenges at home first. Complete the area just north of Baghdad, engaging the important Medusa quest. If the creature groups there are difficult types for a youngish Order army then skip to the Skill Fair first up the western road and toughen up SH. Skip over the mock combats to the south of Baghdad and probably leave the Death Shield Quest reward area for later. You should've by now had a secondary hero run up to take control of Samarra, and then Zeugma a bit later in the desert. Neither are strongly guarded. Zeugma has a bonus group of Monks the first time it is entered after conquered so be sure to enter with a hero rather than just access the town with a right mouse click. While SH are at the skill fair have them stop by and get a beer and get the message about the robbery. If you've already run through the Medusa Quest area then the next thing to do is go behind the Skill Fair, kill the robber group and get the goodies. Send a Halfling to sail/flag the boat for later use. You should be ready to knock of the Necromancer (at about the bottom center below the mock battle arena) to fulfill the Quest across the river from Baghdad. You'll get 2 nice artifacts as a reward. SH will probably be the only heroes strong enough to run through the Creature Lairs on the road to the northern Lighthouse, so do that and then jog north, get the Wand of Weakness quest if you haven't already, hit the Graveyard and get the spells at Zeugma under SH's belts (you did build up the Magic structures there, right?) Some time around now you'll get a message that Parisa has been turned into a Sprite. Make sure she is protected since she's pretty much the only one you'll get in this world, and remember to take her with you to Colossa. Next thing is the battle with the Behemoth group. This is much easier if you have the Teleport spell; otherwise your army will be decimated and won't get through the initial Colossa trek. If nothing else use Town Gate and go back and forth a few times to soften up the Behemoth army. Get the Goodies in the dried up lake and jockey the Wand of Weakness back to its Quest structure for some more good ranged weaponry. After that go to the Pyramids since they have nice rewards, then board ship for the first trip to Colossa and points North. You will probably make more than one roundtrip to Colossa. It might be done in one trip but I don't think you could fully explore the map. The journey to Colossa should have 2 ships. One will have Sinbad/Harufa and the army. The 2nd will have Parisa/sprite and a secondary army of replacements with a decent hero. It can fight if it has to but the Sinbad group should clear a path for it to avoid losing the Sprite/Parisa. Its not impossible to get another Sprite in the game but it would be coincidental and require Diplomacy or Charm. Both groups should have heroes that can Summon Ship. Go north first to get the Gem quest and the 5 Ice Demons. The Igloo quest is very important, so be sure to at least clear the path to it. There are two 2nd level spell altars that are the only locations where you can get the important spells that they have. Complete the Ice Demon quest and go north to the other half of the snow island. You'll get a bunch of gems out of the Pandora's box. This is another good reason to have 2 ships and an extra hero since they can get the Gem Casket into play after fulfilling the Igloo quest (and then leaves by the 2nd ship to pick up with Sinbad). The Magic Lamp building is constructed for you at Baghdad and allows building of the 4th level building there. A band of Genies is also ready for you. The easiest route to Parisa once you finish up the north island is to follow the line of the mountains, avoiding the large nasty groups of sea monsters. Eventually you'll see a group of gargoyles guarding the beach. Land around there and make your way up. On your way there its an easy stop to pick up the Medusas, who will join you. You have to fight the Devils to open up the portal that has two exits in your homeland, and the Devils are pretty much in the way to get to the sea surrounding the island that has the cure for Parisa. This is the first difficult battle that you Must fight, and you have at least one more difficult one before you get Parisa so be careful not to lose too much of your army. Send the Medusas back home to their Quest hut. This opens up the area at the far east, next to the river. You only have to go there once, but only by ship. You should have been building up the strongest possible army at home to gain control of the Dragon Factory and Cloud Castle. At the entrance to each of these your arrival initiates the construction of the 4th level buildings at either Chandra or Samarra. You pay for them but by this time you'll likely have plenty of gold and resources. A portal allows your army's quick return and lets you Caravan the 4th level creatures found here to your towns. Order Town armies don't want to Melee with anyone if possible and that's true for these and all the other coming battles. Sometimes a Teleport of a tank group like the Nagas or Unicorns can be just the thing to do but an exception to the rule. In the meantime the Sinbad group probably has to fight some groups of Cyclopes to clear the way to Fowl Island for itself and the 2nd army that has Parisa/sprite. Once on Fowl Island there are several battles. SH should have a complement of spells that make them relatively painless,except perhaps for the fast-moving Phoenix. Each group of Griffins has a necessary ingredient to complete the Parisa quest. Once you get Parisa don't lose her. The game is not lost but there are many undesirable consequences if you do. Parisa has a bunch of Genies with her that are probably indispensable. Don't forget to visit the purple tent. The first hero in the group that rescues her gets a level up. Unfortunately you don't get to pick the skill when a script levels up a hero, so you'll have to browse around your heroe's stats to see what was improved. Its a good idea to have a 2nd army group with a hero that has the Town Gate spell, if possible, while wandering around Colossa. Town Gate is only found at the altar in the snowy north end of Colossa. It's a good idea to whisk Parisa back home to get her out of harm's way. You can mess with her stats safely there if you want to, and she is a likely candidate to get Expert Level in Order Magic if you don't have any other hero that can. If the 2nd group doesn't have Town Gate then they can use the Portal down near where the Medusas were. Instead of continuing west, SH should go back east, with the one with Parisa possibly following Sinbad. The Sinbad army should land at the northern end of the east coast of the island lake, and take out the wandering Cyclopes groups. If you fight the Water Elementals be sure to Teleport if possible and Melee with them, they are much easier to beat that way. Sinbad needs to conquer the Blue team garrison and send in a halfling or such to touch the Oracle and Blue Tent. Send SH back down around the trees to the eastern snow area of Colossa and get all the Spell Shrines that they can use. Harufa can get Teleport here if he doesn't already have it. Town Gate everybody home. Random game elements can make gold plentiful or scarce. If you're having gold shortages then send a secondary hero or two with an army to the Creature Treasures while Sinbad is in Colossa, since they will have respawned by now.The Pyramids always hand out nice artifacts to the conquerors. Once back home Sinbad & Harufa should get the Shrine rewards at the Death Shield Quest Gate. They can dabble with the mock battles south of Baghdad but their army can get beat up if you're not careful. Harufa Order spells are important so make sure he gets Teleport and Mass Slow (if he's gotten to Master in Order Magic). Bring some Potions of Mana and Immortality on your 2nd trip through Colossa. There will be battles when you need them. Although you will again go by ship, at least by accessing the Blue tent you can open up the 2nd set of chains through the ocean mountains and save 2-3 turns at sea. Take pretty much the same land route then sail to the western edge of Fowl Island and get the Traveler's Boots. You can also level up at the nearby Tree of Knowledge with no difficulty. Sail West. You must stop at the Red Keymaster's tent Nort of Fowl Island, but you can stop first further south and acquire the large group of Unicorns, then ride to the Cyclopes Treasure. There are worthwhile items in the Cyclopes treasure. Since your army now has several alignments, artifacts that improve morale are valuable. There is a very tough battle near the entrance to the Death Town. A strong Death hero with lots of Devils and Bone Dragons guards the pass. A strong army, Potions of Immortality and plenty of luck and morale are needed. Kill the Death hero ASAP since his spells can screw up your ranged attack strategies. The Devils are difficult. I won by Teleporting all the Unicorns to kill the Death Hero, and then they kept the SLOWed Bone Dragons occupied while everyone else hacked away at the Devils. There is a way around the pass to the south, and the battle you find down there is likely to be fought anyway. If Morale is too low drop the Unicorns off since they lower Order's morale quite a bit, and fight with the Nagas as the tanks. Sinbad will have to fight a careful battle all by himself at the end. He really needs the stuff he finds in Colossa's swamp to win this one. This plots a course for the majority of the map. The rest is pretty straightforward and since you can take as much time as you want, you can make it easy with a huge army or go as quickly as possible for a good score.