Disciples 2 - Dark Prophecy This FAQ is not to be published in any media other than its free distribution on the Internet. It is not to be sold in any manner nor included in any product that is sold. No money is to be made in any way by or because of this FAQ. Nobody should ever have to pay to view this FAQ. Copyright (c) 2002 by Rogue (Philip Ryan Ott). If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, you can reach me at FAQage@yahoo.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------v. 0.80 5/20/2003 First Public Release - What you see is what you get. I'm pretty much done with all of the sections except for the walkthroughs. So far I've completed the first three missions of the Empire's Saga. I should be finished with that Saga at least within a week of this release date, and have the rest of the walkthrough completed shortly thereafter. v. 0.85 7/15/2003 Second Public Release - Alright, it took me longer than I expected to post this next update because of a rash of unexpected homework and because I decided to edit the entire FAQ anyway. So now many errors have been corrected, I found out what Incite Riot Skill does thanks to the fine people on the GameFaqs message boards, and the entire Empire Saga is complete. Next up is the Undead Saga, which I hope to finish MUCH quicker. ----------------------------------------------------------------------If you are new to this game, then I would like to suggest you take a look at the in-game tutorial before you proceed, since I'm assuming you have a basic grasp of this game. The game designers didn't really make it obvious to spot, you have to go to Single Player, then to New Quest, then scroll down the list until you see a map called Tutorial. It isn't perfect, but it does answer quite a few questions. This FAQ is written according to version 1.41 of the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------Table of Contents: 1. Basics a) Terrain Control b) Lords c) City Growth d) Diplomacy 2. Heroes a) Hero Types b) Abilities 3. Saga Walkthrough a) Empire's Saga 1. The Necromancer's Spirit 2. The Alliance3. Antagonists 4. Uther's Crusade 5. Slander and Barbarism b) Undead's Saga c) Mountain Clans' Saga d) Legion's Saga 4. Magic a) Empire's b) Undead's c) Mountain d) Legion's 5. Items a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) j) k) 6. Units a) Empire's Units i) Empire's Fighter Units ii) Empire's Ranged Units iii) Empire's Mage Units iv) Empire's Support Units v) Empire's Heroes vi) Empire's Special Unit b) Undead's Units i) Undead's Fighter Units ii) Undead's Ranged Units iii) Undead's Mage Units iv) Undead's Support Units v) Undead's Heroes vi) Undead's Special Unit c) Mountain Clans' Units i) Mountain Clans' Fighter Units ii) Mountain Clans' Ranged Units iii) Mountain Clans' Mage Units iv) Mountain Clans' Support Units v) Mountain Clans' Heroes vi) Mountain Clans' Special Unit d) Legion's Units i) Legion's Fighter Units ii) Legion's Ranged Units iii) Legion's Mage Units iv) Legion's Support Units v) Legion's Heroes vi) Legion's Special Unit e) Neutral Units i) Neutral Humans ii) Elves Potions Talismans Orbs Valuables Artifacts Banners Boots Tomes Miscellaneous Staffs Scrolls Magic Magic Clans' Magic Magiciii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii)Greenskins Dragons Marshes Water Inhabitants Barbarian Miscellaneous Neutrals7. Special Thanks ----------------------------------------------------------------------1. Basics a) Terrain Control There are five terrain themes in the game, one for each race and one neutral. The purpose of the terrain themes is for resource control, whoever's terrain theme is underneath a certain resource (gold mine or a mana type) gets extra resources from it. If the terrain theme underneath is neutral, then no one gains resources from it at the moment. There are three structures that you can use to spread your influence across the land, and hence extend your race's terrain theme to gain more resources. They are your Capital, cities you control, and rods you have planted. Now when two different races' terrain themes come in contact, what determines whose theme will grow and whose will shrink? Well, at the beginning of a player's turn his race's theme will always expand a bit, but by how much relative to other players is determined by how many of each structure you have in the area that are pushing your influence forward compared to the other players' structures. Here I'll rank how powerful each structure is. Cities: A regular city you control pushes your terrain theme by the most and is the fastest of the structures. If on an island you control the single city on it and another player controls only his capital on it then your city will be pushing harder against his capital, and eventually your terrain theme will overcome his. Of course at the start of his turn he'll gain a bit of territory, but the amount he acquires will be less than what you gain at the start of your turn, and thus your territory will overtake his over time. Capital: A capital by itself pushes more and faster than only a rod. It pushes kind of slow, so try to capture cities as soon as you can. Rod: A rod has the weakest push of all the structures, but it does have a special exception. A rod's purpose is not to spread your terrain theme but to capture individual resources. If a rod is planted adjacent to a resource then its race will control that resource no matter how many enemy cities or capitals are in the area. While it may not always be able to push against enemy terrain themes and spread your influence, it will hold onto that resource until another player's Champion destroys your rod. This way you can control all the resources in an enemy's territory without having to conquer all of his cities. You cannot plant rods too close to capitals, cities, or other rods. Whose territory will be overcome by whose is determined arithmetically (I think). The more cities or rods a player has on a landmass the more they will push against another player's territory. Cities are the biggest contributors. They are the only ones that have any real push. Capitals only help you to get started and rods are mostly for capturing individual resources (there's no way agroup of rods push harder than a city). Neutral territory does not have any push so even a single rod can overcome it. I have seen neutral territory expand a few times, but only when a neutral party first actually moved and conquered a city owned by a player. Then that city started to spread the neutral terrain theme. I've seen this rarely, but it can happen on very few missions. b) Lords You can pick one of three Lords to be when you start a new saga or quest. Each Lord starts with a particular hero (you can always make more heroes, you're not tied to the one you start with). Each Lord also gives you certain abilities and characteristics when you play, so it's important you choose the one that best matches your style. Warrior Lord - Starts with the Fighter Hero - All units regain at least 15% of any lost HP per day (As opposed to the normal 5%) - Magic research is limited to Level 4 In my personal opinion, this Lord really isn't worth it. The only real benefit he gets is the extra HP regeneration per day, and while that may look really useful when you're just starting a mission, in the long run it isn't nearly as useful as the abilities the other Lords give you.Mage Lord - Starts with the Mage Hero - Starts with the Mage Tower built - Spells cost 50% less to research - Can cast any spell twice a day (as opposed to the normal once-a-day per spell) - Can research all spells up to Level 5 This is my favorite Lord. While Level 5 spells aren't the end-all-be-all in magic, certain ones do have their advantages. The best thing about this Lord though is that not only does it cost less to research spells, but spells can be cast twice a day! Many times I have found myself needing a spell more than once, especially those that restore a party's move points. It's just endlessly useful.Guildmaster - Starts with the Scouting Hero - Starts with the Guild built - Thieves have more abilities - Cities cost 50% less to grow - Magic Research is limited to Level 4 Cities don't cost that much to grow as it is, so growing them for less isn't all that. The best aspect of this Lord is the extra capabilities your Thieves get. It's not quite as useful as the capabilities the Mage Lord offers in my opinion, but they can help greatly. The only real drawback is that to maximize this potential you'd need quite a few thieves, and while a single one is relatively inexpensive, having to build several and having to replace them regularly does empty your coffers rather quickly. You really need that money tobuild more structures and to heal units, but it's your call. c) City Growth The description the game gives the Guildmaster is a bit misleading. It says that you can "build" cities for 50% less with that Lord. However, you never really "build" cities or make more than the map starts with, you grow them. Cities do several things. They spread your terrain theme, they can build new units and heroes, they provide extra defense for units inside them, and they heal any units inside them between turns (you can also pay to heal units in a city at any time if you have built a Temple, but the regeneration between turns is free). Cities go from Levels 1-5 (Capitals are kinda like Level 6 cities, but you cannot grow a city as large as a capital). As a city grows from one level to the next, the HP regeneration and defensive values they offer increase, as does the number of garrison units that the city can hold at any time (in the city screen, the right side with the units is the garrison; the left side is the party inside the city and its size is not limited by the city level). Below are the capabilities of the different city levels. Level 1: Level 2: Level 3: Level 4: Level 5: Capital: 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% unit unit unit unit unit unit HP HP HP HP HP HP regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, +10 +15 +20 +25 +30 +50 armor armor armor armor armor armor to to to to to to units units units units units units inside, inside, inside, inside, inside, inside, garrison garrison garrison garrison garrison garrison max max max max max max of of of of of of 1 2 3 4 5 6d) Diplomacy Most missions have multiple races in them, and usually some will start as somewhat friendly towards you and some hostile. Most of the time the arrangement makes sense, such as the Dwarves will be friendlier to the Empire than to the Legion, the Legion and the Undead will be hostile to the mortal races, but sometimes war does call for unlikely bedfellows. No matter what race is leaning towards liking you, it's usually best to befriend them. You can see a race's attitude towards you on the bar next to the race in the diplomacy menu. To make them lean towards peace with you, you can give them a gift of gold. The larger the quantity you give the more friendly they'll become toward you. Attacking and destroying their enemies' parties and capturing their enemies' cities will also make them like you more. Do note however that by giving them gifts and attacking their enemies, their enemies will like you even less and less, so it's a bit tricky to try to befriend two races who are at war with each other. There are three tendencies another race can have towards you: peace, neutral, or war. A tendency toward war means that the race will almost always take an opportunity to attack you. A neutral stance means that they will usually attack you, but won't go out of their way just to do it. A tendency towards peace means that they will almost never attack you, but may sometimes plant a rod next to resources you control. You must first be at peace with a race before you can offer to sell them an item or spell, or offer an alliance. Selling items andspells does not make them friendlier towards you, and accepting or rejecting proposals to buy things from them will not change their attitude either (you will reject them a lot because they almost always inflate the price). Offering alliances is a bit tricky. The more they like you the more likely they are to accept an alliance. If they do accept it their bar will go completely blue, signifying they are totally on your side, but if they do not accept for whatever reason then their bar will lose support for you and most likely they will become neutral towards you. The safest time to offer an alliance is when their bar is almost completely blue. Alliances will hold however if the race's attitude towards you turns sour. You merely need to be at peace with them to offer an alliance, not to maintain one. Alliances have good and bad sides. They are good because they insure that the race will not attack you, letting you concentrate your forces more on your opponents. They too will be able to concentrate more on attacking you opponents. You can also now pass right by their parties, letting your parties take more direct routes instead of having to go the long way around just because the game will not let you move from one spot adjacent to a non-allied party to another. The drawbacks are that this may limit your growth because then you will not be able to capture their cities or break their rods to claim more resources. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of an alliance is that many times (especially with the Dwarves for some odd reason) your allies will plant rods next to resources your territory is about to push towards and claim, thus preventing you from getting resources that may be right next to a newly captured city. You can't then destroy their rod to claim what is rightfully yours because they're your allies. Do not despair if your allies are getting in your way, because invariably throughout the game your allies will break their alliance with you. This usually happens when their enemies become a mild threat after you beat them bad. If this happens do not worry because it will NEVER affect the story nor cause you to fail a mission. It also won't affect that race's attitude towards you later in the game. It's just something they do often, opening them up and their resources to attack from you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------2. Heroes a) Hero Types Fighter Hero: Your basic super-fighter, this hero has the most HP and the strongest attack of all the hero types. In every race but the Dwarves this hero can fly, which is extremely useful because he ignores terrain type and loses only 2 movement points over all terrain. He can also regenerate HP at a rate of 15% per day, regardless if you are the Warrior Lord or not. He also starts with the Artifact Lore skill. Scouting Hero: Not quite a match for the Fighter Hero in earlier levels, but he offers a definite advantage with his quick attack and long range. Scouting Heroes have more move points than any other hero, and even though they usually cannot fly, most other heroes cannot either, so they can be used to intercept pesky enemy parties that are snooping around where they shouldn't be and have alonger range than other heroes. Scouting Heroes start with the Travel Lore skill. Mage Hero: Mages are very important units to have, especially since several Undead units are immune to weapons. Since mage units tend to start out really weak and underpowered, why not start off with a Mage Hero who already has a higher attack than your beginning fighter units? While Mages have very little HP and attack power compared to other heroes, once they gain a few levels they easily overcome this deficiency and their ability to hit every enemy makes them pretty kick-ass. A huge benefit that comes from their multi-targeting is that certain artifacts can imbue a hero's attack, allowing them to give enemies they hit certain status ailments. While all other heroes' attack only one target, the mage can inflict this status ailment on ALL enemy units. It's something to think about. Mage Heroes start with the Use Staffs and Scrolls skill, which only they have. This also gives them a distinct advantage, and making them my favorite hero. Rod Planting Hero: Rod Planters are obviously very important to your war effort, however they are also seriously disadvantaged when it comes to combat. They start only able to lead one other unit with them and not all of them have an attack that deals damages. Their attacks are direct reflections of their race's power source: The Empire's Rod Planter heals, the Legion's Rod Planter incites fear and causes enemy units to retreat, the Undeads' Rod Planter attacks the mind and paralyzes, and the Dwarves' Rod Planter simply has a damage inflicting weapon. Rod Planters need to be protected by other parties due to their vulnerabilities. Thief: While he cannot gain levels nor lead any extra units, the thief is an invaluable hero. His support of your other heroes, by either poisoning prospective targets or by stealing health potions for them, can mean the difference between life or death for your parties. He is not, however, without limits. Some skills will work without a hitch all the time, every time. Others depend on the leader of the target. The stronger the leader is, the more of a chance the thief will be caught and hung. When a thief acts on a city that has a party with a leader in it, he can only act on that party. When the party either dies or leaves the city, only then can he act on the city and the units garrisoned inside.His abilities are as follows (abilities with a * next to it are only available if you chose the Guildmaster Lord): -Poison Party/City: The thief poisons the water supply of the party or city you target, effectively reducing the HP of all of the units by a certain percentage. This is an invaluable skill and possibly the one you'll use the thief for the most. -Duel: Your thief will face the target party's leader in a one on one battle. The thief isn't that capable of a fighter, so he can't take on many leaders, and those leaders he can defeat will usually retreat before you can kill them, but this skill does have its uses. You always have a 100% chance of taunting a leader into a duel. -Infiltrate Spy: Your thief will send a spy into the enemy ranks. You will then by able to right click on any enemy party or city and be able to see what units are in it. Your spy will most likely be caught and killed eventually and you will have to infiltrate another one. It's completely random when the spy will be caught; he could last for as long as a few dozen days or as short as one day. Either way, you'll probably use this skill often. You always have a 100%chance of infiltrating a spy. -*Counterfeit Orders: The thief will give the enemy party or city false orders telling them to rearrange their party order in some random fashion. This is an iffy skill. Since it's random how the party order will be afterwards, sometimes this skill will help much by putting weak units in the front and strong, close range units in the back, and sometimes it won't be so helpful. Sometimes it just won't matter with some parties. However, if your party is weakened but you need to attack, this skill can't hurt -*Steal Item: Your thief steals an item from an enemy party or city if there is an item to be stolen. Please note that this skill can always be used on a merchant's shop, you just need to be a Guildmaster to be able to steal an item from an enemy party or city. For Races that can't heal themselves, a thief who raids a merchant for many health potions can be unbelievably invaluable. -*Steal Spell: Your thief will attempt to steal a spell from an enemy spell book. This doesn't mean that the enemy will no longer have the spell, just that you will own it as well. This skill can always be used on a magic shop, it's just that you need to be a Guildmaster to be able to steal a spell from an enemy city. The chance of this skill succeeding against an enemy city is usually very low, but the payoff can be very high. -*Assassinate: Your thief will kill a unit in an enemy party or city without a fight. However, it seems that the thief tends to target one of the weakest units in the party with this skill, so it's not quite that useful. Even if the party you're targeting is so strong that its weakest unit can still whoop some ass, it'll probably be too aware for you to have much of a chance of pulling this off. -*Bribe populace: The thief will pay a neutral city money from your coffers to overthrow any neutral units in it and to join your side. Again, this only works on a NEUTRAL city, not on one owned by another race. -*Steal Gold: The thief will attempt to steal some gold from an enemy's vaults. This can only be done against an enemy city and is generally easier for the thief to pull off than stealing a spell. -*Incite a Riot: The thief will incite a riot in an enemy city. A city in a riot will have a little fire icon on it. You cannot incite a riot in a capital. As long as there's no party with a leader inside the city, a thief always has a 100% chance of inciting a riot, regardless of the city's size or the units garrisoned in it. Several different things happen when a city is in riot: -the owner cannot access the city in any way, meaning he cannot build units in it, cannot rearrange units, cannot grow the city, cannot enter a party into it, cannot access the city's menu, etc. -no thieves can act on the city. -units inside the city cannot regenerate health during the riot like they normally would. -any unit inside the city that was initially at full health will take damage equivalent to 20% of its maximum HP at the end of the riot. -any unit inside the city that was initially partially damaged will get healed by about 4% of its maximum health at the end of the riot. -any unit inside the city that was initially near death will be healed by five more points than the percentage the city heals by at the end of the riot. For example, a level 3 city thaat normally heals by 20% will heal a near-dead unit by 25 points at the end of a riot; a level 5 city that normally heals by 30% will heal a near-dead unit by 35points at the end of a riot. This skill is obviously extremely useful. You can effectively hurt the units garrisoned inside a city without risk to the thief, though it takes three days before it works. You can stop a city from building new units and parties, prevent the enemy from reinforcing the city with parties, and if you're chasing an enemy party you can prevent them from fleeing into the city where it will gain a defensive bonus and can heal. b) Abilities Below is a list of the skills and abilities your heroes can get through leveling. They're listed in a general order of when you can acquire them. I'll also add a rating number from 0 - 5, 5 being the highest, for how useful I find each skill, if you care. Once your hero reaches level 15 he/she will not gain any more abilities when they level, so you must be careful in choosing which ones you get. 1. Use Scrolls and Staffs - (5) You cannot gain this ability by leveling. Only Mage heroes start with it. It is immensely helpful, since scrolls and staffs can let you use useful spells your race wouldn't normally have and can save you mana. If your main hero isn't a mage, I'd suggest making one and giving him all of your scrolls and staffs to use. 2. Travel Lore - (5) Allows the hero to wear magical boots. All boots enhance the hero's movement, and those that increase total movement points are the more useful ones. While this skill is a must have, I'd suggest you wait before you get it. Not only will it take you some time to find some magical boots, your total movement points early in the game are so low that the boots' benefits will not be substantial enough until your hero is higher leveled. 3. Banner Bearer - (5) This skill allows the hero to equip Banners. Banners improve the abilities of all of the units in the hero's party, and as such makes this skill very valuable. 4. Pathfinding - (4) This ability increases the hero's total movement points by 20%. I think it's 20% of whatever the hero's natural total movement points would be, so the amount of movement points it adds increases with every level. Like the Travel Lore skill, I would suggest waiting on this skill and getting it when your hero is higher leveled, since its effects aren't that substantial at lower levels and there're other skills that you'd want as early as possible. 5. Arcane Knowledge - (2) Allows the hero to equip magical tomes. Magical tomes simply give the hero the equivalency of another hero ability you get at higher levels: Arcane Lore, Arcane Power, Weapon Master, Water Ward, Earth Ward, Fire Ward, and Air Ward. The only skill of these of any real value is Weapon Master, but the tome with it is rare, so this skill really isn't all that helpful. You're better off getting Weapon Master when you can and getting other skills instead of this one. 6. Artifact Lore - (5) Allows the hero to equip Artifacts. While artifacts only affect the hero, you can equip two of them and they greatly improve the abilities of the hero, either by raising his attack power, defense rating, initiative, or by adding a status ailment to his attack.7. Arcane Lore - (1) Allows the Hero equip and use Orbs in battle. However, most potions can do everything an orb can do, and orbs are much rarer to find. Those orbs that let you summon a unit in battle only work once, and generally you'll want your own units fighting instead of them. So, this skill really isn't that helpful, especially compared to other ones you can get. 8. Leadership - (5) This ability allows your hero to bring one more unit into his party. Need I say any more about its usefulness? You should get it as soon as you can, it's more important than any other skill. 9. Might - (4.5) Adds 25% damage to the attack of the hero. This skill can help turn your hero into a killing machine. While there may be other skills such as Leadership that you'd want to get first, this is an important one you'll want to get eventually. 10. Natural Armor (3.5) - The leader will absorb 20% of all damage he suffers. This effectively gives the hero +20 armor. This skill is much more useful if your hero is on the front line in battle. Overall it's helpful, but not especially important. 11. Arcane Power - (1) Allows the hero to equip and use Talismans in battle. What I said for Arcane Lore holds here, since almost every Talisman has an orb equivalent and they're just as rare. Potions are more useful generally. 12. Advanced Pathfinding - (5) Adds 25% to the hero's total movement points. You can get this skill without getting Pathfinding first, there are no prerequisites for hero skills. Once your hero is leveled enough this ability is greatly helpful as it lets you move much farther per turn. It's not so helpful early on, like Pathfinding, but once the hero is sufficiently leveled it really is. 13. Leadership (The second time) - (5) Eventually you can get the Leadership ability a second time. Exactly like the first, it lets you add yet another unit to the hero's party. If your hero isn't a Rod Planter this means you've now reached the maximum of six units for the party and making you even more powerful. I suggest you get it as soon as you can. 14. Weapon Master - (5) All the units in the hero's party will gain 25% extra experience in battle. This is unbelievably useful since it helps your units gain levels and become stronger much faster. It's a must have. 15. Accuracy - (0) This skill increases by 20% the hero's chance to hit. While it sounds useful on paper, in reality your hero starts with an 80% chance to hit, and gains 1% more with every level. So you hero's chance to hit will already be close to 100% as it is and you won't really need this skill. Remember you can only choose so many skills, and picking a redundant skill like this one means there's a really useful skill out there you won't have. 16. Keen-Sight - (0.5) This ability allows the hero to see farther in the fog of war. All heroes except for the Scouting Hero start with a sight of 5 squares in each cardinal direction. The Scouting Hero has a sight of 6 squares. This ability will give any hero a sight of 8 squares. I tend to believe that skills directly affecting your fighting abilities are more useful than miscellaneousskills like this one, but if you really want it then go for it. I just don't find it that useful, since scouting really isn't a high priority in this game. 17. Natural Healing - (1) This ability allows the hero to heal 15% of his HP every day. The Fighter Heroes already possess this skill, but if you have a different hero it still ain't worth it. By the time your hero is leveled enough to gain this ability his HP should be much higher and you should have enough gold and potions to heal him if you need to, without waiting a few days for to heal on his own. 18. Toughness - (2.5) Adds 20% more HP to the hero. If you find your hero getting beat up more than you'd like, then I guess this skill would be good to get. However, there are better skills out there that are immensely useful, while I've found this is to be only marginally helpful. 19.Incorruptible - (0 or 4) I believe this skill makes the hero immune to enemy thieves. While it's not useful at all in single play, if you come across a Guildmaster in multiplay who uses lots of thieves, then this skill would become much more important. It really depends if you plan on playing against people who use a lot of thieves, otherwise it's virtually worthless. 20. Water Ward - (.5) The hero with this skill will be unaffected by the first water-based attack in any battle. However, this only affects the hero and not the other members of the party, and there are plenty of better skills available so this has limited use. 21. Forestwalk - (3) With this skill the hero will suffer no movement penalty when traveling through forests. He'll treat them just like normal plains terrain. It's not the most helpful of spells, but it does have its perks in moving farther and faster. If there's no other skills that'll help you more then by all means I'd suggest getting this. 22. Earth Ward - (.5) The hero with this skill will be unaffected by the first earth-based attack in any battle. However, this only affects the hero and not the other members of the party, and there are plenty of better skills available so this has limited use. 23. First Strike - (5) This skill increases the initiative of the hero by 50%, literally allowing them the first strike in most battles. Even if your hero is a slow Mage or Dwarf this will make them faster than ranged units. It's extremely useful, a must-have in my opinion, especially if your hero has an Artifact that lets him inflict status ailments with his attack. You could seriously screw up an enemy before it can attack. 24. Fire Ward - (.5) The hero with this skill will be unaffected by the first fire-based attack in any battle. However, this only affects the hero and not the other members of the party, and there are plenty of better skills available so this has limited use. 25. Air Ward - (.5) The hero with this skill will be unaffected by the first air-based attack in any battle. However, this only affects the hero and not the other members of the party, and there are plenty of better skills available so this has limited use. 26. Flying - (5) You can't earn this skill by leveling. Only certain heroesstart with it. This skill is a big help since heroes with it treat all terrain equally using only 2 movement points per square, making bodies of water and forests no problem. 27. Plant Rod - (5) This ability allows the hero to plant rods. This skill can only be used by Rod Planters, and they start with it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------3. Saga Walkthrough I *HIGHLY* suggest you do the Sagas in the correct order, since skipping ahead may ruin a few parts of the story line for you. While the game is never quite clear what the correct order is, clicking on the right blue diamond shaped crystal when choosing a Saga will lead you sequentially in the correct order. It is as follows: Empire, Undead, Dwarves, and then finally the Legions. I also suggest for most of the Sagas that you pick the Mage Hero as your main hero. After you beat a mission you are allowed to take one hero and five items along to the next mission. I recommend taking the same Hero and his equipment each time, since you'll need a strong leader for the powerful enemies and bosses you'll encounter late in each Saga. I suggest particularly that you pick the Mage Hero because there are artifacts in each saga that add a status effect to your hero's attack. Some of these artifacts are very powerful by themselves, and are even more powerful when your Mage Hero inflicts them on every unit in the enemy party. In Disciples 2 there are many routes to getting to where you want to go. Very rarely is there a map that is straightforward where the best or only way is definitely one or the other. Since there are usually several different paths to take in a mission, neither being any easier or wiser than another, I won't lay out a step-by-step plan for tackling each mission, since there really is none and I'm sure you can find a better plan than me. As such I'll just make note of the more important, and confusing, features of each map and leave the actual playing to you. Please note that maps that are kind of angled that you find in Disciples 2 or Civilization 2 and 3 confuse me. I never know which way to call north, so to simplify things when I say north I mean up. Same goes for the other directions, east is right, west is left, and south is down. ----------------a) Empire's Saga There are many units to choose for your main party and many different development paths for each. I myself spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the best unit combination would be, and in the end it all depends on playing the game and experimenting with the units. You can look up the Units section for more detail, but for now the best balance that worked for me in this Saga was a Mage Hero (choosing a Mage Hero for this saga is more important than for the other sagas because of an item you get and that the later levels of this saga seem to be harder than most), a healer, and fighter units in the front. As soon as my hero got the first Leadership skill I added another melee unit in thefront, and then with the second Leadership I finally added an archer unit. The Healer you choose is up to choice. Most people I know prefer the mass-healer of the Cleric tree, while I myself use the single-healers of the Priest tree. While the Cleric tree heals everyone in your party at once, I usually find the amount they heal by is too little to keep my frontline fighter units alive. Often I'll have one fighter unit take most of the punishment, so I'll have him defend while my single-healer heals him by twice as much as the Cleric tree can. However, for certain missions where enemies that mass-paralyze are a major problem I too will use the higher level mass-healers for their curative abilities. The choice is up to you and what works best for you. ----------------Mission 1 The Necromancer's Spirit Objective: Destroy Erhog the Dark. Races: Legion Timed: No Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, 2 Witch Hunters. I suggest the Witch Hunters instead of the Knights because there's no real difference between them, just that the Witch Hunters are immune to mind attacks which the Legion employs. It probably won't come in use in this mission, but just in case. When your hero reaches level 3 you should get the Leadership skill so you can add another Squire to your party. By that time you may not want to wait around until he upgrades to a Witch Hunter before you finish the mission. It's up to you. If you don't have a Mage Hero, then I suggest a Marksman in his place. This mission is pretty straightforward. The very first thing to do is to fight the enemies around your capital and collect the treasures nearby (don't forget the one in the top-right past the two thugs). Follow the path to the south-west and capture the town; it's lightly defended. Past that in the path between the mountains an Orc with two Goblins will move to block your path in a little trap of theirs. It's not much of a trap, they just get in the way so kill them and keep moving. At day 15 you'll get a message saying that the Emperor has been poisoned and will die soon if an antidote is not found. Don't worry about this, Erhog has the antidote and since the mission is not timed, so you can take as long as you want and the Emperor won't die and make the mission fail. After the Orc "trap" you'll come across a Ruined Tower. I highly suggest you get fully healed before trying to take it on since the units are a bit strong for your low-leveled party. After that there's a Life Mana resource to the left with a tough thug party guarding a treasure. To the south east is the route to the rest of the map. There's a Mage Tower and the only source of Runic Mana on themap. There's also an Ogre nearby guarding a ring that unlocks a statue to the north east. Don't worry about the statue until you get near it. You can now either go north or east along the river. They both end up in the same place really, and you move faster on land, so you should go north to a city with a Merchant Shop nearby. This is the nearest city to the Legion's capital, which is due south in the bottom corner, so I suggest after capturing it to leave behind some units to guard it. If you go south to the Infernal Mana and then go east you'll end up at the Temple of Nerhog, your objective. However as a detour for some more experience and equipment you can go north to a city. Capture it and a Ranger called Wolfgar will appear to aid you. Unless you are seriously doubting your choice of Hero I suggest having your main party still do most of the fighting. There are two paths east, one across water and one across land. The land one is a dead end, but it takes you to a Keep and the statue the ring unlocks. The statue gives you a Tome of Fire, which will be helpful later on in the Saga. Going back and taking the path across the water will lead you to a Gold Mine along the upper edge of the map and a city with an Infernal Mana nearby. By now you should have killed all of the neutral parties on the map which the Legion didn't, so you can then go due south across the water to the Temple of Nerhog. Be warned; she's incredibly strong, so you may want to use as many spells and scrolls as you can or even building a new party to soften her up before your main party takes her on. If your Hero isn't to level three yet, which is the highest level he can attain on the first map, then you could go track down some of the Legion's parties before finishing the map. ----------------Mission 2 The Alliance Objective: Find the Mountain Clans diplomat Slookarijj. Races: Legion, Mountain Clans Timed: No Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, 3 Inquisitors. Again, I suggest the Inquisitors because they have the mind immunity and the Imperial Knight isn't that much stronger. If your main party leader is not a Mage Hero, then I suggest you add a mage to your party and build up his levels to a Wizard. You'll need a strong magic user near the end of the map. Near the beginning of the mission you will receive a message saying you have to follow the river north to find Slookarijj. That's not exactly accurate. What you have to do is follow the river that's immediately to the north of your capital to the east. Every time there's a fork in the river you take the route to the north. That will lead you directly to Slookarijj, but without gaining levels it will be very difficult. You now can use level 3 magic. I highly suggest you get Wrath of God, Holy Strength, and Holy Armor, since they are immensely useful.Directly east of your capital is a town. From here the river goes east and there's a land path leading southeast. I suggest taking the land route first so you can capture the town on it. This has two advantages: it gives you more resources and it eventually chokes the Legions' capital. Since there are only three cities on this landmass, this close one and Agraak's city (more on this later)and the Legion's capital, and since there is little chance anybody will capture Agraak's city anytime soon, it will be just your city's influence pushing against the Legion's capital's influence. Your city's influence will slowly overcome the Legion's and your territory will spread and capture the Legion's resources and choke their supply. Turning back to the river and following it east will soon bring you to the approximate center of the map, where the river flows through two close mountain ranges near a mermaid. You can go over land to the northwest, follow the river northeast, or cross a land bridge to the southeast. The northwest route eventually circles back around to the center of the map from the northeast route. I suggest going this way first, since it brings you to a few cities, a new hero, experience, and lots of items. Taking the northwest route will bring you to an item shop, a magic shop, and a city. But first you will run into an Insane Loremaster who rants about some poor archangel he's captured. Kill him and you will release an archangel near the top of the map. She will join you and will be able to plant rods near many of the resources up there. Circling past the city to an Abandoned Tower and going north from there will take you to the area she was imprisoned. You will pass by a cemetery where you get a message that the spirit of a hero of the First Great Wars will aid you, but I'm pretty sure it's just something superstitious because you don't get any new heroes, and nothing seems to happen. Follow the river directly above you to the topmost corner and you will run into Tiorek. He demands that you rescue his brother Horek in the southeast part of the map from the thugs who've captured him. Tiorek is very strong, and I wouldn't recommend attacking him just for some experience. Instead, rescue his brother when you can. Horek will join you as a party leader and you have to get him to Tiorek safely to get a Quicksilver potion as a reward. This permanently increases a unit's initiative and giving it to your main leader would be a good idea. After exploring much of the map, you should have leveled enough to take on King Agraak in his city of Hundtoll. After you kill him, the greenskins on the map will be more hostile towards you, and some will actually move to engage you. Your final destination is in the northeast end of the map, directly east of the Dwarven capital. It's the only place on the map with the Undead's terrain type (black ground with dead trees). In there you'll have to face some tough Undead units, along with the two parties of wolverines that appear when you near the city where Slookarijj is being held. Wolverines are only vulnerable to magic so you'd better have some magicians or at least spend some mana and cast some spells. After the wolverines you'll face a tough Vampire's party and then a necromancer's party inside the city. Beat them all and you've rescued Slookarijj! ----------------Mission 3 Antagonists Objective: Destroy Hubert de Layle.Races: Legion Timed: Yes Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, 3 Inquisitors. Again, I suggest the Inquisitors because they have the mind immunity and the Imperial Knight isn't that much stronger. Your hero should reach level 6 in this mission and gain the second Leadership ability. You should then add on an Archer and level him as much as you can. If you don't have a Mage Hero, then I'd suggest a Wizard to replace him. This is the first timed mission and it's rather difficult. The map is divided into approximate quarters: The western quarter is you starting location; the eastern quarter is the Legion's territory; the northern quarter is the important city Fhindar; the southern quarter is a massive spider forest which is quite possibly the MOST dangerous location in the game because of your low units' low level restrictions. The Legion really isn't that much of a threat in this level, it's what's inside the spider forest that you gotta watch out for (it's also what's inside the spider forest that kills a lot of Legion units, which is part of why they're a small threat). It goes like this. It's a race against the clock to level your units as fast as possible. You start the level with an extra party: Nobar the Traveler, an assassin, who has two more assassins with him, and while his party is pretty strong, they won't be tough enough later on so I suggest you leave all of the fighting to your main party so they can level. There are a few weak neutral parties near your capital to start with. I suggest staying on the landmass and moving north to capture the city there next. Nobar will tell you that it's dangerous to go in the water and he's right. There are some strong mermen and kraken out there which can pick their teeth with your initially weak party, and to make matter worse they will actually try to follow you and will attack on their own. This is why I suggest avoiding the water at first until you've killed everything you can on your island. To the west is a Keep, some neutral parties, and a few items. To the east is the same, but with a city and a life mana. I suggest going west first, to the edge of the map, because you might not have time to do it later, and the city to the east is along your way to the rest of the map. You must level as much as you can until day 20, because then the spider forest will catch on fire and all of the spiders inside flee and terrorize the rest of the map. There are five spider parties in total, each with at least one Giant Spider or one Giant Black Spider. Mind you that just taking on one of these giant spiders will be a big challenge for your low-leveled party, let along 5 parties with one or more. So you've got to be careful, because while if you take too many of them on too quickly you'll get eaten, but if you can work it just right you can get massive amounts of experience from killing them. It's actually kinda safe to venture into the spider forest before day 20 because four of the five parties will not move from their spots until the forest is set on fire. But then, going in there really doesn't do much but waste valuable leveling-up time. The spider parties will go on a rampage, attacking anything near them. Each party's ultimate goal is to capture a city (not capitals). Once they do that, they'll stay inside the city and won't come out. If there aren't any cities leftnot under a spider's control, then they'll just chase after any neutral parties left on the map. Usually only one of them will ever capture a city, and the others will die in a fight, but not before they wreak havoc on your cities and parties. You've just got to be careful and take them one at a time, using whatever spells and potions you can, and then healing afterwards. They'll move after the lone city in the Legion's quarter first, so they'll likely be weakened from fighting whatever Legion units that get in their way, but not by much. Just when giant spiders invading the map seems like a lot, it gets worse. On day 30 Hubert de Layle will appear, along with three other parties, in the spider forest and will make his way to Fhindar. He has two parties called Hubert's Guards, which will stay near him at all times, and the third is Hubert's Scout, which seems content to attack neutral parties and collect items on the map. ********************************** New Objective: Destroy Hubert de Layle before he captures the city of Fhindar. ********************************** Now you have a problem. First, they may be some giant spiders left, second Hubert will soon arrive at Fhindar and will easily defeat its meager defenses, and third you have even less time now to fully level your hero and to get a very special item. There is a den in the spider forest which has inside it a Giant Spider, an Ogre, and a Goblin Archer. They are guarding an item I believe to be the most useful in the game: the Soul Crystal. It is an artifact which adds to your hero's attack a chance to paralyze the enemy. If you followed my advice and chose the Mage Hero as your party leader, this means that every time your hero attacks he will have a chance to paralyze every unit in the enemy party. It does not make the game ridiculously easy from then on, but it does make the last levels of the saga MUCH more bearable. However, the Soul Crystal is strongly guarded, so you've got to do some fancy footwork to get it, not lose too much health so that you can defeat Hubert, and avoiding the remaining spiders the whole time. However, you do get a small break. On day 33 (or whenever you try to enter the northern icy quarter of the map) Uther, long lost heir to the Empire, makes his triumphant return. His arrival brings him and two Dwarven parties under your control. ********************************** New Objective: Uther must not die. ********************************** Uther himself is quite a capable fighter. However, he nor the other Dwarf parties will be able to defeat Hubert. They are best used for running interference against the Legion or weakening Hubert's party, but if you're a bit more cautious than that, taking Uther to some remote corner of the map really won't handicap your forces much. There are a few ways to defeat Hubert. One is just to bum rush him and kill him. Another is to capture Fhindar for yourself, build up a massive defense there, and wait for Hubert to come to you. However, neither of these strategies leaves you much time to get the Soul Crystal and to level your hero. Fortunately, thereis a third way that I discovered, almost by accident. Your mission objective is really to kill Hubert's entire party, so if you kill just Hubert in battle and then retreat, then because he is the party leader his party's total movement points go down. For some reason they go down to zero. Thus, if you kill Hubert and leave at least one other unit in his party alive, then you've effectively halted Hubert's progress! His two Hubert's Guards parties will not move because he isn't moving, and now since he can't make his way to Fhindar, you no longer have any time constraints on the mission. I've never seen the Legion attack Hubert or his men, so it's unlikely they will attack and kill him, ending the mission before you want to. Now all you have to do is finish whatever business you have, and then you can kill the remaining units in Hubert's party and win the mission. ----------------Mission 4 Uther's Crusade Objectives: - Capture the cities of Avonia Castle, Rock Castle, and North Keep. - Uther must not die. Races: Mountain Clans, Legion Timed: No Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, Assassin, 3 Angels. I recommend the Angels over the Paladin and the Grand Inquisitor because of their high HP and attack. My second choice would be the Paladin because its armor is much more useful than the mind immunity and fire ward the Grand Inquisitor has. If you don't have a Mage Hero I'd suggest a White Wizard as your magic user. The map is cut approximately in half corner to the east corner. The three of that mountain range. You start in Just get all the experience you need by a mountain range running from the west cities you need to conquer are just south the top corner. This map is pretty easy. and then capture the cities.Just as in the last mission, Uther is pretty strong, but he also must be kept alive. Since he can't be carried over to the next mission, you'll want your main hero to do all the fighting anyway, so keeping Uther in a safe location is probably the best idea. The units he starts with are already a bit leveled, so your main party can get a jumpstart if you switch them over. I suppose Uther can be good to use to defend a city, but it's up to you. You start the mission allied with the Dwarves, so it would be a good idea to get the Death Mana due south of your capital and the Infernal Mana at about the midpoint of the top-right edge of the map before they do. There's also a Runic Mana along the top-left edge near the top corner that's easy to miss. Don't fret if you don't get the resources before the Dwarves do, because they'll break the alliance at day 15 and turn neutral to you and then on day 20 they'll declare war because their leader Morok Cloudkeeper seems to have gone crazy. If you did get the resources already then be sure to leave a party in the city nearby to guard them so the Dwarves don't break your rods. At day 16 Uther will have some words with some Undead. After that, some Undeadunits from the west (just above the dividing mountain range) will start to chase Uther wherever he goes. He can probably take him, but then you'll lost experience your main hero can get, so try to intercept them if you can. If you go to where they start, a peasant there will plead you to save him from a Troll party. Kill it and he'll reveal a path to an Old Tumulus in the western corner, south of the dividing mountain range. It houses a Tome of War, which isn't terribly useful since you'll get the Weapon Master skill soon, so you might not even want to bother getting it. There is a spearman party right outside Rock Castle. Do not attack it, because when you take the city and then approach the spearman party, it will join your side. While not the strongest of parties, it can at least save you some money by acting as defense for the city. Capture all three cities and the mission is over, so make sure you level out your main hero before you capture the last one. ----------------Mission 5 Slander and Barbarism Objective: Destroy Dark Elf Lyf before he destroys the Elves. Races: Undead, Legion Timed: No Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, Assassin, and 3 Angels. You will find it difficult to hold cities and resources on this map, so it's very likely you will gain gold very slowly. Although this is the first map where you can get the highest level fighter units, you may find the 3000 gold price tag for their structures to be too expensive. You can easily defeat Lyf with level 4 units, so I suggest getting Angels. I prefer them over the Paladins because of their stronger attack, but if you want the Paladins armor then it's not a big deal. If you do not have a Mage Hero then I would suggest having a White Wizard as your magic caster. You'll need a magic user for weapon-immune units. Alright, this mission is a PAIN IN THE ASS. Your only objective is to save the Elves from certain destruction. You start in the eastern corner and the Elves are in the west. The Elves' island is completely surrounded by mountains, and the only entrance is on the far western side. You may want to seriously consider playing this map unconventionally, as in not doing the basic capture-cities-and-resources routine. The Dark Elf Lyf is in a Lost Mostaba in the northern corner and he constantly produces Undead parties until you kill him. Since he never stops making them, and since the Undead are making more from their cities as well, you'll soon be overwhelmed by a massive amount of Undead. This makes holding cities and resources very difficult. Instead, concentrating mostly on using your main party to save the Elves can give you a better chance. Despite the pleas the Elves give you, you don't have to worry about them immediately. It'll be some time before they're in any real danger. There are twocities between you and the Legion's capital to the northwest. It may be possible to hold them for some time without difficulty, but probably you will want to move to the eastern corner to level up on the weaker parties there. There is a magic shop on a ledge along the top-right corner that you can only reach by first going to the Legion's capital to get onto the ledge. This has a few Legion spells and while there may be an Infernal mana nearby, it's probably the only one you'll be able to hold onto, so going to the magic shop really isn't worth it, unless you do it for the experience. There is a city due south of your capital across the river that is guarded by a Giant Black Spider party and several neutral parties. If you have the time you may want to capture this city and gain some serious experience and a few resources, since the Legion and the Undead will usually be too busy with each other to bother showing up near there, at least in force. An elven messenger party arrives as day 7 and comes under your command. It consists of 2 Elf Rangers and a Forest Elf; not a formidable force but it may be enough to guard some resources. A better use for them however is to scout the way to the Elves' island. Send the party west along the river right below your main capital. Eventually they will find a fork in the river with a mermaid group. The mermaid group will join your side, but remember water creatures cannot travel on land. The party consists of a Mermaid and a Kraken. You should probably now send your Elfish party back to guard some resources and send the mermaid group along the river north. It will eventually wind around the island until you reach the entrance of the Elves. This northern route is the way the Undead that Lyf sends will travel to attack the Elves, so it's a good thing to clear the fog of war in the area. You may keep the mermaid party there, but they will not be much of a defense soon enough. A funny fact, if you never meet up with that mermaid party and they never join you, they will not be bothered by any enemy parties. The Undead will walk around them and never attack. It's not really useful, but kinda funny to watch. Lyf's assault force initially consists of two parties: 1) 1 Ghost, 2 Zombies 2) 2 Zombies. They will head towards the Elves' island from the start and will arrive at about day 12. They will most likely kill one of the two guard parties at the entrance to the Elves city, but they will do no greater damage. There is no need to worry about them, you should concentrate more on building up levels. Lyf will constantly be rebuilding his assault force, and I shall describe it here. Starting on day 10 he will create over a period of two days several of what I call Weak Parties. Weak 3) 1 4) 1 5) 1 Parties: Specter, 1 Doomdrake Specter, 2 Zombies Warlock, 2 ZombiesThey may be a few slight variations. He will generate more Weak Parties every 10days. I've never seen the Weak Parties actually move toward the Elves, I've only seen them annoy the Legion or move to the center of the map. Actually, a LOT of the Undead's parties like to go near center of the map and just take turns going in and out of Undead cities. This is why waiting for the computer to finish its turn on this map eventually takes a long while, because of all the Undead moving aimlessly. If you capture any of these cities however all those parties will converge to take it back, so if you try it'll be hard as hell to hold on to it. On day 25 the real threat emerges. Lyf will start pumping out his Strong Parties. Strong Parties: 6) 1 Necromancer, 1 Werewolf, 1 Death 7) 1 Skeleton Champion, 1 Warlock, 2 Zombies Just like the Weak Parties Lyf will raise more groups of Strong Parties, except that it will be every 25 days. The Necromancer parties are recognizable on the map as dark, cloaked figures. The Skeleton Champion parties are easily recognizable as the guys holding purple fire swords. The Necromancer parties tend to go right, away from the Elves' island, when they exit Lyf's lair and then annoy the Legion a bit. Then they move to the center of the map and prattle around there. The Champions however go straight to the entrance of the Elves and on about day 33 or 34 the first group of them will arrive and attack. See, when the game tells you that the objective is to save the Elves, what it really means is that you must save the Elf Lord Hyllia. You'll still win the mission if he lives and all the other Elves die. When you reach the entrance to the Elves' island the game updates your objectives. ********************************** New Objective: Destroy Dark Elf Lyf before he destroys the Elves. Hyllia must not die. ********************************** If unhindered the Champion parties will arrive and will kill Lord Hyllia with little trouble. He only has 2 Rangers and 2 Centaurs with him. So, your main party must intercept this first group of Champions at the very least before day 33. If you move Hyllia you will notice that the Elves' island itself is not the Champions' target, instead it is Hyllia. If you attempt to move him they will follow him wherever he goes. A risky idea is to move him to your capital, where you'll be able to send reinforcements faster, he will heal faster, and he'll gain the defensive bonus of your capital. However, getting him past the enormous mass of Undead throughout the map will be quite difficult and maybe even more dangerous than letting him stay on the island. Either way, you should keep your main party near him for protection until you're ready to attack Lyf himself. You may even want to swap one or two of your more own stronger units into his party for further protection. A side note, on day 33 Lollena Greenlief, the leader of one of the Elf parties, will say he's had enough and will attack the Undead relentlessly. Not even Hyllia can talk him out of it. Yet, every time I've played this mission, Lollena never DOES anything. Even after that passionate speech, he just stays in thatsame spot. Oh well. One annoying little thing about the Elves is that they hate outsiders coming into their realm. As such, they will not allow any of your human parties to come inside. There are a few Elf parties positioned so that you cannot enter without passing adjacent to them. If any of your human parties attempts this, the Elf parties will attack. This is kinda bad because there are two very tempting treasure bags on the island that are just begging you to force your way in and find out what they are. Fortunately there's a very easy way to get around this. Elvish parties that join under your command are still allowed to pass by the other Elves without fighting (be careful though, because double-clicking on an Elf party not under your command can still cause your own Elf parties to attack. It's very easy to do accidentally). Thus, since Hyllia joins you anyway you can send him to pick up the two treasures and bring them to you main party without hassle. The northern one is a worthless Tome of Arcanum, but the other is a very valuable Boots of Travelling. If you hero has the Travel Lore ability this will give him a 40% boost in his movement points. On day 45 Lyf will send out his two Strongest Parties. Strongest Parties: 8) 1 Vampire, 2 Dracolichs 9) 1 Vampire, 2 Werewolves, 1 Warlock, 1 Wraith These two parties are Lyf's strongest force and he will only make them once. Party # 9 is especially dangerous because it has three units that are not susceptible to weapons. You may want to save up some mana and pound these guys before attacking. They usually travel to the center of map, screw around there for a few days, and then they will go after Hyllia. There is no way his party can fend them off, so you've got to take care of them. In the western corner of the map is an interesting town occupied by Marsh Creatures. They are rather tough, but give excellent experience. The rest of the map is rather boring. The Undead's capital is near the southern corner and early on in the mission they will own the two cities near them and the one city near the center of the map. They will pretty much clear the area of experience-giving neutral parties and treasure, but since the treasure is rather worthless anyway there's no real reason to go down there, especially when you have to protect Hyllia. Once you get Hyllia I suggest you then focus on protecting him. There's no real need to conquer the entire map, and it'll make it a LOT harder on yourself. When you think your main party is leveled up enough then you just have to send them on up to Lyf. When you approach the mouth of his "valley of the dead" a Deathdragon party with a Warlock and a Shade will attack you, but they shouldn't be much trouble if you're leveled enough. There's a city up there you can capture and use to heal up before finally assaulting Lyf. Lyf's party consists of him and one Deathdragon. However, Lyf is very powerful in that he can summon a unit in EVERY empty square of his party. He can summon Zombies, Skeleton Warriors, and Wraiths, and whenever he has the room for giant units he will summon Giant Black Spiders. First, I suggest you get yourfrontline units to kill that Deathdragon since it can hurt your rear units. Keep your mage and Assassin attacking Lyf. Once the Deathdragon is gone have your frontliners simply defend since Lyf will keep summoning more to replace what they kill. If you think they can kill the units nearest them before those units can attack, then try it by all means. If not, keep them defending. Eventually your mage and Assassin will kill Lyf and all of his summoned units will disappear. And that's mission 5. ----------------Mission 6 The Celebration Objective: Avenge Demosthene's death by destroying Uther. Races: Mountain Clans, Legion Timed: No Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Healer, Assassin, and 3 Defenders of the Faith. If you do not have a Mage Hero then I'd suggest a White Wizard. This mission starts out . . . poorly. Emperor Demosthene is murdered by his son Uther by a really cool looking spell you get as the Legion. To make matters worse three demons warp in and are causing chaos in the capital. On the plus side, you finally get to use level 5 magic if you're a Mage Lord, though it'll be some time before you amass enough mana to use it. The three demons aren't much a problem at all. You start out with enough money to build a full party and by the time you kill the third one your Squires should have upgraded already. The capital is surrounded by walls and mountains, with the only exit in the bottom-right. You'll definitely want to check out the treasures laying around since there're a couple of healing potions there. There are also two merchant shops your Thieves can bleed dry, so you may want to train some quickly. There's also a merchant shop right outside the city that has a bunch of scrolls. Finally, there is a magic shop with really weak Dwarf magic, but you will DEFINITELY want to pick up the Seafaring spell there. You start in the center of the map. The Dwarves are to the north and the Legion is to the west. There are also Elves to the east, but you'll want to wait before you go anywhere near there. You start with a bunch of small spearmen parties that are pretty worthless except as scouts and cheap city guards. Once you exit the city walls there is a small town nearby. I suggest going due south from here, as some easy experience is nearby. Then move to the southern corner and capture the city. At day 4 the Elves contact you and say they wish they could help, but they have a problem. At day 10 they'll tell you what it is. The Undead are troubling them again and they want you to exterminate all the Undead units in the southern corner, so if you clear the southern corner they'll send a Horn of Awareness to your capital. From here there is a town nearby to the north-west, but it's kinda close to the Legion so if you don't feel you have the resources to defend it, then leave it alone. Either way you'll want toeventually go around the map from here counter-clockwise. You'll soon come to the Elves in the east. Even if you clear the southern corner for them they still don't want you to enter their lands. If you get close enough to the two Forest Elf parties guarding their entrance they will warn you to stay away again, but this time if you stand in that spot for a turn those two parties will attack you. Even if you leave another Forest Elf party and a Centaur Lancer party will rush to form up behind the guards. Since there's no actual consequence of attacking the guards and forcing your way into their lands, you might as well. Like I said before, attacking another nation will not affect their attitude towards you in later missions. There are a few good items in their lands, including some valuables and some warding potions. There's also a magic shop in the rightmost corner that sells some weak Dwarf magic. The best thing they have to offer you however is a TON of experience. Most of the elf parties aren't strong enough to kill you, but they do give good experience. The real doozy is the Blue Dragon hanging out near the magic shop. Just be warned, it's incredibly strong and you may have to wait a long while before you'll be strong enough to attack it. Unless of course, you got the Soul Crystal in Mission 3, then it's MUCH easier, though still too strong to be underestimated. It's always possible the Soul Crystal won't paralyze it with every attack, and it takes just one blast of its breath to devastate your party. You should definitely prepare before fighting it, like heal, drink potions, cast spells, but do be careful to not take the city in the Elf lands. If you do the Blue Dragon will rush forward to take it back, possibly when you're not ready for it yet. So prepare for the dragon first, then take the city. This way you've cast your spells and you'll have the added defense the city offers you. The strong Elf party next to the Dragon will also move if you take the city, but it'll chase after your party only as long as you own the city. Just a bit north of the Elves' entrance is the small city of Nimoria. While it in itself is not very special the outpost to the west of it is. It is heavily guarded by a Black Dragon and two Goblin Archers. Not only does this give you great experience, if you can survive the dragon, but you also acquire a Mjolnir's Crown, which gives your hero +35% damage. Sweep through the Dwarves' territory in the north. Attack them if you want or ally with them to only to be betrayed by them later, it's your call. It's annoying how the computer can't honor its alliances, but what are you gonna do. Eventually you'll circle around to the west. If you capture the Western Fort you'll receive a message that Uther will surely retaliate for this. He does, in a way. When you capture the city some of the lesser Demonic parties in the Legion's territory will stop standing still and will attack you. By now they should be no problem, especially after those two dragons. When you think you're ready to attack Uther then go to the western corner. When you approach he'll cast a spell on your party that lowers its units' chances to hit. Then one of his parties will attack you. It consists of a Demonologist, an Incubus, and an Onyx Gargoyle. After that there's a party blocking your way to Uther that has a level 7 Duke, two Anti-Paladins, a Hag, and a Demonologist. Finally Uther is exposed. His party consists of him, a Beast, an Infernal Knight, a Berzerker, and a Sorcerer. Since Uther is in the rear of the party and cannot attack you just yet, the Beast is your primary threat. Once you kill the party the mission is won, but unfortunately Uther is not dead. Instead hetransforms into Demon Uther, who is MUCH more powerful and is the boss of the next mission. ----------------Mission 7 Binding Forces Objective: Destroy Uther in his demonic form. Races: Mountain Clans, Legion, Undead Timed: Yes Suggested Party: Mage Hero, Prophetess, Assassin, and 3 Defenders of the Faith. If you do not have a Mage Hero then I'd suggest a White Wizard. While I prefer and suggest the Hierophant for most missions, for this mission I suggest taking the Cleric route with your healers and eventually make a Prophetess. This is because not only does Demon Uther deal massive damage to all of your units in a single attack, but he also has a very good chance of paralyzing them as well. If the Prophetess is not paralyzed during his attack then she can cure all of your other units and un-paralyze them, and maybe save the battle. You start out in the bottom corner. Your capital's guardian has been weakened by Uther, so he can't repel an attacking party as easily as before. That's okay because your capital isn't in immediate danger, in fact you won't need to leave behind a party to defend it because the enemies on this map aren't programmed to attack capitals. However, the reason this map is labeled as "timed" is on day 75 Uther will leave his spot in the northern corner and will travel down to attack your capital. He is the only enemy on the map that will attack your capital, and he will destroy it too, meaning you lose the mission, if your strongest party does not intervene. Uther is so strong that ONLY a high-level leader with very high-leveled units can hope to hurt him. Your people will give you a warning on day 80 that he is coming, but really he will arrive at the capital on or around day 86, depending on if he's slowed by having to attack parties to clear a path. He's also followed by an entrouge of five cultist groups, but they're so slow and weak you don't have to bother with them. While you don't have to worry about him for quite a while, you'll still need plenty of time to build up your party. Usually I'll work my way up to him and attack him with ten days left before he moves, but if you really want an extra edge you could always build up your party, then bring them back to your capital and wait for him to come to you, so that you get the capital's +50 armor bonus. Some important things happen in the Dwarf country to the west. On day 5 a Clan Leader will tell you that because of Demosthene's death the Clans have to decide on whether your alliance with them stands. For the moment you are not allied with them. On day 11 the Dwarves will tell you that they're still discussing the matter, but please do not take aggressive action toward them. In actuality you can attack them all you want: destroy their parties, capture their cities, do whatever you like to them because on day 23 they will still ally with you and their attitude will turn completely peaceful towards you. Having one race offyour back helps a lot on this mission. They will actually stay allied with you for a pretty long time, but if eventually the Legion and the Undead become too weak they'll break the alliance, but by that time you won't really care because you'll be worried about Uther mostly. You'll be told at the beginning that the Undead have concluded an alliance with the Legion, but if you check the diplomacy menu you'll see that this isn't true. They'll be fighting the whole mission. What the message really means is that in some of the neutral cities you'll find Undead units and Legion units side by side. You have two general routes you can follow at the start of the mission. You can go left towards the Mountain Clans territory or you can go right. I suggest you go left first, because the enemies are weaker and easier to level on, and so you can capture some Dwarven cities and resources before they ally with you. The route to the right takes you by some strong neutral Undead and Legion parties. It eventually winds around to near the center of the map, to the long east-west river that divides the map. Since the left route brings you here as well, you can easily go through the right route after taking the left route and then get the experience from those stronger parties. The only real points of interest in the right route is a merchant shop, a few resources, a Greenskin mercenary camp, and the experience. When you go left, a useless spearman group near a city will join your side. Further west near the city Khazan however is an important magic shop with two very useful Mountain Clans spells: Chant of Hasting and Seafaring. It's a big map with lots of water, so not only will they help you to explore it faster, they could also be invaluable to catching Uther before he reaches your capital. Northeast of Khazan is the town of Runia. Directly east of it is a treasure lying around, and it is a Boots of the Elements. You may find this very useful for exploring the watery west quadrant. Also directly east of Runia is a Ruined Outpost. You're going to have to be pretty leveled to take it on as a Black Dragon and two Wyverns guard it. The treasure inside it is worth the trouble though: 800 gold and a Banner of Fortitude, which gives your party +20 armor. There are two more cities in the left quadrant and a few resources. Along the top-left edge, northwest of Otzwall and near the leftmost corner, is an Elf party. Approach him and he tells you not worry, that the Elves are on the way to help. On the next day that's a multiple of five (hence if you meet the Elf on any day from 21-24 you have to wait until day 25) three elvish parties will arrive in the bottom corner: - 2 parties of 2 Centaur Lancers and a Forest Elf - a party of one Centaur Lancer, 2 Elf Rangers, and an Orcacle Elf The parties are too weak to be really helpful, but if need be they can get in the way of Uther and slow him down a little. Near the center of the map and north of the great east-west river is the city Nepheris. A dead-end path takes off to the northwest of it. Down it is a trainer, which if you have the money can prepare your party for Uther faster. There's also an item shop which has some hero equipment, most notably a useful Etched Circlet with its +35 armor bonus, and a magic shop which has some Undead spells. The only useful spell is the Curse of Nygrael, which can help reduce Uther's minions'attack by 15%. The path has a bunch of Greenskin partiesscattered around it, and the many Ogres can provide much experience. There are two entrances to the Legion's main area. One is right near Nepheris and the other is in the Undead's eastern area near the city Bhaagruz. There are two other cities in the Undead's area and some resources. Capturing these may take too long so skip them if you want, but there is a magic shop east of the Undead's capital that you should definitely hit. It has a Highfather's Potion that gives a unit +15% HP. There is an Abyssal Devil group at each entrance to the Legion's series of plateaus. The first part is a curved plateau with a Mercenary Camp that leads to a dead-end in the east and eventually leads to Uther in the west. The Ruined Farm in the east has only a Lich Orb in it, but it does offer some experience with its Beast and two Anti-Paladins. In the west there is a party with a Tiamath and two Gargoyles. As you approach it a trap is sprung and two Onyx Gargoyle groups appear behind your party, one with an Onyx and two Marble Gargoyles and the other with an Onyx, a Marble Gargoyle and a Moloch. The Tiamath's party then attacks. The Onyx Gargoyle groups may or may not attack you in the next turn, they seem to act randomly, so you might have some time to heal before facing them. West of the trap is Gruu'kheml, the closest city to Uther and the Legion's capital. Nearby is a merchant shop with lots of useful potions that can increase your units' attack power, speed, and defense. Southwest of the merchant shop is a dead-end path to Thruggr'hesh, which has nearby an Infernal Mana and a very valuable Imperial Crown, which can help you to pay for the potions you want or for the thieves you'll build to steal them. Northwest of the merchant shop is an Abyssal Devil group with a Hag, an Incubus, and two Dopplegangers. Approach it and the Legion casts the Undead spell Nightfall, which blackens out the entire map for you. Amid this darkness 4 Abyssal Devil groups appear along the southern edges of the map. Each appears near a city: Aragonia, Western Fort, Indras Keep, and Gilgam City. They all come with 2 Imps, but the ones in the east also have a Doppleganger. These parties go about trying to capture cities, attack parties, and generally cause carnage. But since they're technically Legion units, they obey its AI and will not attack your capital, even if it's lightly defended, so don't fret like I did if one of them gets close. Kill the Abyssal Devil in the north and Uther will give you a warning, but he does nothing about it. However, another Abyssal Devil party with a Beast, a Doppleganger, and a Witch near the Legion's capital will stop standing still and will start moving. Usually it'll attack the Tiamath party with two Witches and two Infernal Knights that's guarding the way to Uther, and die. Now you've reached the plateau with the Legion's capital, which is to the northeast. If you get too close to it the Legion will attack you with spells, but if you keep a reasonable distance from it they won't. East of the capital is an Ancient Keep guarded by two Imps, a Demon, and a Succubus. The reward for clearing it is an Invulnerability Potion. There may be another InvulnerabilityPotion nearby on the ground, if the Legion didn't snatch it up already. To the west is a Perthin. It's heavily guarded by an Overlord, two Witches, and an Anti-Paladin. It's worth it for the Banner of War that gives your party +20% damage. North of that Tiamath group is Uther, in all his glory, surrounded by five Cultist groups. His party consists of him, a Hag, two Infernal Knights, and a Modeus. Uther himself can attack your entire party at once and has a good chance to paralyze them. This is what makes him harder than a Capital's Guardian. Even if your party is level 30 and can conquer capitals, that paralyzing effect can still let Uther beat it. This is why I highly suggest bringing along a Prophetess, even if you prefer the Hierophant, because there's a chance she won't be paralyzed and will cure the rest of your party. You'll have to pull out every stop to defeat Uther. As many spells as possible, every scroll, and as many potions as you have. Even if you want to stay in your capital and wait for him to come to you, you'll still want to work your way up to the Legion's capital to gain the massive amounts of experience you'll need to be strong enough to face Uther. Also note that the Soul Crystal cannot save you here because Uther is immune to Mind attacks. It can only help to paralyze the other units in his party. Once you do kill him he stays dead this time and the Empire Saga is finished. ----------------b) Undead's Saga ----------------c) Dwarves' Saga ----------------d) Legion's Saga ----------------------------------------------------------------------4. Magic Magic is a very integral part of Disciples 2. It can attack enemy units, enhance your parties abilities, decreases enemy parties' abilities, or even summon warriors to fight for your cause. It's only drawback is that you cannot case spells on parties inside cities. Spells that affect a party's abilities, whether positively or negatively, last for only a single day. Summoned warriors only live until they are killed or until one day has passed, excluding the Legion's summoned illusions, which last for three days but cannot fight and cannot be killed. Summoned warriors cannot capture or stay inside cities. The Empire has several spells that give a party wards to a certain damage source. This means that in every battle in that day the first time that damage source hits an enchanted unit that unit will be unaffected. This also means that the enchanted units will be unaffected by enemy spells with that damage source for rest of the day. -----------------a) Empire's Magic The Empire's magic is characterized as protective. It has spells that give positive status effects, the strongest healing spells, and Wards. All of their attack spells use air as a weapon source. They only have two summoned warriors. Level I Air ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first air-based attack in any battle for one day. Celerity - Increases by 10% the initiative of the target party. - This spell can be quite useful, for if you can move faster than the enemy you may be able to kill them before they can attack. Strength - Increases by 10% the damage inflicted by enchanted units in battle. This spell is always useful for that special fight where it really counts. However, you shouldn't need to drain your mana reserves on this spell all the time. Lightning - Inflicts 15 points of air damage to target units. Water Ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first water-based attack in any battle for one day. Level II Haste - Hasted units recover 50% of their move points. - This is one of the most valuable spells the Empire has; you may find yourself using it quite often. Healing - Heals 30 HP. - The best part about being mortal is the ability to heal your units at will. If your healers can't finish the job, this may. Summon I: Living Armor - Summons the magically animated Living Armor. True Sight - Disperses a small area of the fog of war (5x5 area). - While it may seem useful to be able to spy on an enemy's territory with this spell, if you don't know your way around it's just a shot in the dark and may not be as helpful as you'd think. It's small area also doesn't always tell you if a certain path leads to a dead end or not. Earth Ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first earth-based attack in any battle for one day. Level III Mind Ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first mind-based attack in any battle for one day. Holy Armor - Enchanted units will receive 20% less damage from attack. - Extraarmor can always help to keep your people fighting longer. Holy Strength - Enchanted units have 20% greater chance to hit. - While most units have an accuracy of 80%, when it really counts this spell is just a safeguard that your units won't miss when they can't afford to. Wrath of God - Inflicts 50 points of air damage to target units. Chain Lightning - Inflicts 40 points of air damage in the spell area (3x3). Level IV Summon II: Golem - Summons the earth elemental Golem. - This is the strongest summon the Empire has and its high HP and ability to attack all enemy units at once make it formidable. Fire Ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first fire-based attack in any battle for one day. Call to Arms - Increases by 33% the damage inflicted by enchanted units in battle. - This is one of the most useful spells the Empire has, the ability to seriously increase your parties attack powers. While not exactly cheap, it can still help out in tight spots. Highfather's Blessing - Heals 60 HP at the center of the spell area and 30 HP in the rest. - For when your parties are pretty beat up, this spell is a lifesaver. It's one of the reasons why the humans are so durable and can last longer in the field. Daylight - Disperses all fog of war. - This is the ultimate spell of the Empire. While it is extremely costly, you should only have to cast it once. Being able to see the entire map means you can keep tabs on your enemies and be able to find dead-end paths without having to waste time searching through them. Definitely worth it. Just know the Undead have a spell to darken the whole map for their enemies, so be careful you don't waste all that mana for nothing. Level V Death Ward - The enchanted party will be unaffected by the first death-based attack in any battle for one day. Armageddon - Inflicts 125 points of air damage to target units. - This is the most powerful attack spell the Empire has. It'll cripple or destroy all but the most powerful parties. Major Healing - Heals 150 HP. - For when you really need it. It's the most powerful healing spell in the game, and only the Empire has it. Winds of Restoration - Heals all the spell caster's units by 80 HP. - I've never had a situation where the majority of my units were all severely damaged, but I suppose it may come up someday so this spell would have a use. Usually you won'tneed it, but the sheer power of it is still staggering. I guess when you're being seriously overrun by enemy forces this can be a life saver. ----------------b) Undead's Magic The Undead's magic is aimed at harming enemy parties. They have many attack spells, along with a lot of spells that decreases the abilities of enemies. They also have four warriors they can summon and their attack spells have several weapon sources. Level I Summon I: Skeleton - Summons a Skeleton. - This summon is so weak that it's best use is as a scout. Pestilence - Inflicts 15 points of death damage to target units. Ice Storm - Inflicts 15 points of water damage to target units. Weakness - Enchanted units have 10% less chance to hit. Rust - Reduces by 50 the armor of target units. - Few units have armor, but for those few that do this spell can be extremely helpful. Level II Summon II: Evil Ent - Summons an Evil Ent. Plague - Inflicts 30 points of death damage to target units. Shadow - Replenishes a small area of fog of war for all enemy players, which protects your parties from enemy spells (area: 7x7). - This spell is most useful for protecting your Rod Planter heroes from enemy spells while they destroy an enemy rod and wait to plant its own rod. Curse of Nygrael - Reduces by 15% the damage inflicted by enchanted units in battle. - In a way, this spell kinda acts like putting armor on one of your parties, since the damage they take is still lessened. Stone Rain - Inflicts 30 points of water damage to target units. Level III Summons III: Nightmare - Summons a Nightmare. Call Decay Dragon - Inflicts 50 points of death damage to target units. Touch of Mortis - Enchanted units have 20% less chance to hit. Fog of Death - Replenishes a large area of fog of war for all enemy players,which protects your parties from enemy spells (area: 9x9). Death Storm - Inflicts 40 points of earth damage in the spell area (area: 3x3). Level IV Terror - Reduces by 33% the initiative of target units. - an extremely useful,