Heroes of Might and Magic V Walkthrough (using game version 1.4.) by K.K. Rouhiainen (kullervothecursed@dnainternet.net) 10.2.2007 Version 1.0 Table of Contents A. Introduction B. Technical Issues C. Intro to walkthrough The Queen C1M1.The Queen C1M2.The Rebellion C1M3.The Siege C1M4.The Trap C1M5.The Fall of the King The Cultist C2M1. The Betrayal C2M2. The Promise C2M3. The Conquest C2M4. The Ship C2M5. Agrael's Decision The Necromancer C3M1. The Temptation C3M2. The Attack C3M3. The Invasion C3M4. The Regicide C3M5. The Lord of Heresh The Warlock C4M1. The Clanlord C4M2. The Expansion C4M3. The Cultists C4M4. The March C4M5. Raelag's Offer The Ranger C5M1. The Refugees C5M2. The Emerald Ones C5M3. The Defence C5M4. The Archipelago C5M5. The Vampire Lord The Mage C6M1. The Defiant Mage C6M2. The Liberation C6M3. The Triumvirate C6M4. The Alliance C6M5. Zehir's Hope D. Some general tips E. Copyright F. Credits G. Personal Notes H. Version Notes A. Introduction

--------------This is a walkthrough to Ubisoft's game Heroes of Might and Magic V (HoMMV). You can find a lot of information (maps) about this game and other games on the same brand from Celestial Heavens www-pages at www.celestialheavens.com. Why to write a walkthrough to this game? I searched the different forums and www-pages and found out that some of the issues I knew were not in a brief (text) form, giving you, the reader, freedom to adventure the game but still pointing the crucial points to really enjoy your visit to Heroes of Might and Magic Universe. I want to thank Ubisoft Ltd. and Nival Interactive for a fun and entertaining game. Please keep up the good work in providing this kind of resource picking and battling game as I have had so much fun with the series over the years. All the trademarks and other rights are owned by their respective owners. B. Technical Issues ------------------You may have found from the forums and playing the game that there can be some difficulties to have fun with the game, when technical issues with your computer slowing down or the gating crash happening to you. I thought first it happened to me because I was playing with a laptop not fulfilling the minimum requirements of the game. Later I found the same issues with people with much faster computers. Hopefully some ideas I have found will help you to better enjoy the game. First I would suggest you to update the game to version 1.4. and install the newest DirectX. Some may argue to use other versions because new bugs coming with later updates. So please try out how my suggestions work for you, with your risk of course. I played the game with version 1.4. without any (major) problems :-) Updates can be found from Ubisoft's pages at: www.ubisoft.com or www.celestialheavens.com. Ok. Now to some special issues and how I have been able to deal with them. -Gating problem. There seems to be a constant crash when you or the enemy is using gating ability meaning that new creatures are summoned during battle. First I used game option of automatic battles for those few battles I could not win without this bug. But the last mission of the game do not allow you to use automatic battles so I was screwed. Here was a solution which I found by accident: use game option "fastest battle speed" and there should be no problems with this issue. I tried this out many times and it seems to work (for some reason?). Also now version 1.41 should fix the problem. - Game slowing down / graphics. When playing the game it seems that your graphics slow down to very sticky, without any particular reason. There can be more solutions but for me it helped to zoom closely to your character (using mouse wheel) and then you can move / end turn. There should be less problems with graphics now (until next time). Or you can quit and start playing from the latest save. There seemed to be less problems with the later campaigns...

C. Intro to walkthrough -------------------In my walkthrough there is first the general idea what to do and some special issues what could be interesting to character development or player further enjoying the game. After that there are hints which can be special to this campaign / mission or first introduced in this part of the game - for example use of the tavern heroes (level 1 heroes). This will help to point average player some ways to beat the game. There are no big power gamer hints as I played the game with Normal-difficulty and only on occasion using harder difficulties for testing. Also sometimes there could be more than one way of ending the mission not mentioned in this walkthrough. So this guide is not covering all aspects of the game. Also details of the skill wheel or character development are not part of this guide. You can find that kind of information elsewhere. The Queen C1M1. The Queen --------------Welcome to the first mission and campaign. Here you will learn how to move and use the camera. So feel free to look and walk around. There is no real threat in this map. Remember to pick those troops and mark those peasant huts etc. to get you some kind of army. When you have big enough army, you will be given a objective to fight a garrison to end the scenario. What is important is to think ahead what kind of skills you will choose as you army will not follow you to next mission, but you skills, spells and attributes will. So pay attention what you choose. It would be wise to take some combat skills and at least one basic magic school to be able later to use those high level spells. This is not so important during the first campaign but later strong magic will be your friend from mission one of the campaign. Hints - it is easy to develop Isabel a might character but also remember at least one basic magic skill like light or summoning magic. C1M2.The Rebellion -----------------Another introduction mission where you get your first town and find your first stat increase tombs (take your time to increase your stats when it is possible). You may be worried about having only one week to capture your own town. Well, no panic as you can take that archers dwelling, hit the Redwood observatory (to see your target) and take the town. After that you should take the nearby ore pit to be able to build the archers building to the town as fast as possible. Still, there are no enemy heroes or other time limits, so wonder around, develop your town and take the needed stat increase and creature dwellings. When ready, you can take the town in NE corner of the map.

Hints - you can build a structure to buy war machines which are useful even if you do not have the skill, but it would not be a bad choice to take that skill - you will have enough gold in this mission so you can freely take experience from the treasure chests, but actually you have also enough neutral stacks to hit the experience cap... C1M3.The Siege -------------This mission offers a good change to learn some of the basic elements of HoMM5. Now you can recruit more heroes to carry troops to your main hero Isabel and also mark those resources / wind mills. The general idea of the map is to develop your town and troops enough to be able to beat the enemy hero. You should explore the whole map without panic and when ready attack those archdevils in the middle E of the map. After this fight you will face the enemy hero and enjoy the biggest fight so far. End of mission. Hints - still no magic for you so develop those might skills but remember that one magic skill (not essential but without one skill, you are not able to learn those most powerful spells of that specialisation) - out of resources? visit those trading posts which offer best prices for your resources (you will need ore a lot, also crystals) - also some advice about the battles. You may want to protect your archers from melee opponents. So use blockers to circle the troop needing protection or move blockers to the place where they block the enemy. You can use for example peasant (only one) for that, or several one stack peasant. - experience different battles and you will start to see that different troops should be in different places and overall tactics mode is important to prepare for the fight (you may even want to leave some troop out of some difficult fight) C1M4.The Trap ------------As usual you appear on the corner of the map. Your general direction is revealed to you. I suggest you to take those peasant huts and resources as there is no hurry. Just advance N until you have to choose the path thru mountains or the path to the right. I would go right as there is a very interesting building on that path: hill fort. Use it to upgrade your forces. You should be enough gold to do it if you chose to take gold from the treasure chests. You can also visit underground if you wish but it is not obligatory. When you have enough troops, pay a visit to the only town and take it. Now you will develop the magic guild, also visit the town with Findan to get those spells (also very useful summon creatures spell). Now is your time to adventure and take the rest of neutral stacks and stat bonuses. When ready you will have to visit the seer near town and after that visit crypt underground. You will get boots of leviathan which can be used to cross the nearby broken bridge. Advance a little bit to find a surprise and

end of the mission. Hints - when you take peasant huts etc. early you can leave them and order later low level hero to visit them to get for free a lot of troops. - remember always to visit towns with new magic spells as they will follow you to next mission - also archangel near one portal will join you and you will found that one powerful creature with special abilities is quite strong compared to a bunch of low level creatures C1M5.The Fall of the King ------------------------This mission is important story wise. Also you will get Godric as a hero and he is very important. Develop Godric and have him as your main hero during this mission as he will be participating other important missions later. I would suggest to take light magic to Godric also, for later missions. The basic mission is simple, you must go to the first town as capture it within one week (you may as well take it on the last day to have a good start on your troops and resources). After you have taken the town there will be enemy heroes going to your town from the S path (S and then E). Prepare for these attacks. You will also have a lack of resources so you may start to capture resources as fast as possible. Also remember to develop your magic guild fast to have town portal and summon creatures spells. After those you have quite a freedom to adventure without worries about the attacks as you can town portal (Isabel) to your town as needed. I would also give your main army to Godric and have Isabel do the backup work like capturing mines etc. You can also venture to enemy territory SE but you will not be strong enough to take the garrison, so you may as well clear the road and go to underground and check there. When you see obelisks, visit them and you will be give the place where the Tears of Asha is. Just follow the main plot and when ready get Godric to Nicolai quest and you will be almost finished. The mission ends to the fall of the King. Hints - Develop Godric, light magic is useful also logistics (but not too high yet) for later missions - You can also train your troops to higher tier. I like to use developing peasants to archers (if you have the money, right hero and building) - Cavaliers on the S will join you if you are strong enough - Imperial griffins can be very effective against ranged or magic troops The Cultist C2M1. The Betrayal -----------------Some words about Agrael. You should develop Logistics for him (the S witch hut gives it). If you gave Godric (?) also logistics, you

may have to hurry this mission very fast. Still, I was able to do it even when developing also Godric. I would suggest you to save often and try where you can go. I would not pick any resources during this mission but gold is a different story. First I took the S path thru witch hut and to demon tower (you can mark it if you want but no need). Then back to the road again by taking those friendly imps with you. Now you can take the S road to the red key master, and from there one way portal. Go underground as fast as possible. Now if you have time, you can take those creature dwellings or not. Try at least take those joining troops. Just go forward until hill fort (which you should use), and to the end of mission (try not to fight any unnecessary fights). On the surface you will have to fight to end the mission. Hints - Gating is a good skill, develop it to preserve your troops and block the enemy C2M2. The Promise Do you like running? Here is your second change. Well, it will slow down later. Your task is here to take the road up and to be there before the enemy hero. You may want to see how your opponent is doing by hitting those huts of magi (not necessary). Basically you should move along and take the resources and creature dwellings to be ready for the end. As earlier, you may want to save your progress and try some variations to get just in time to the end. At the there are fights as usual. Hints - you should learn more spells now whenever possible - should you take experience over gold from chests? - phantom forces is a nice spell but costs a lot, still not a bad choice C2M3. The Conquest You are in a disadvantage on this map as you have only one town which is quite isolated. Your first task is to capture all the possible creature dwellings and rush forward, to meet the enemy hero for the first time. After the initial confrontation it is time to advance to E to capture the first Sylvan town (best to be done in the beginning of the second week because of the side effect). It may be worthwhile to capture the needed resources also before moving on. There are NE and NW town left. It is up to you which one you take. I took the NW town, left a small garrison there and rushed thru the middle road to the last town. Enemy heroes can come to your NW town or try to sneak from down from the E, so be prepared to clear the fog of war and to fight. Only Gilrael is somewhat strong so you Sylvan troops should be able to handle the situation. I was able to defeat Gilrael near the last town in NE, after which I left my other hero to block the way to the town and started to conquest the land, also killing the source of the druid magic (access is from the N middle of the map). When you are ready, go to the last town and capture it to win the mission. Remember to move your troops to the main army (armies) so that you have always

more troops than you enemy. Also remember that your main hero is the most efficient leading demon army (gating etc.). Hints - being fast crushes enemy's plans - two different strong armies should hold enemy resistance - secure your lines and watch what enemy is doing or planning - use hill fort (remember to use chain of low level heroes if needed) - handle logistics well to win C2M4. The Ship You start again without towns or own resources. So, take hit the hut of magi to get the general picture, take the first Sylvan town, mark the nearby resources and hurry up to the demon town downstairs. I made one demon army and Sylvan army to my new Sylvan hero to avoid leaving troops. This tactics worked ok. There is two initial towns left. Town on middle E was more active so I captured it, following the capture of the town middle W. If you did this fast, all what is left is to adventure the map, develop your hero and troops. You can go the target town using shadow dragon's offer underground, but you can also take the series of garrisons starting from the NE direction of the map. If you do not capture the target town but go past it, you can take all the stat bonus and resources which the shadow dragon route would have given. What is left is the typical end fight which you should win with your demon army or mixed army. Hints - You can save some initial money if you use hill fort in E to upgrade your troops - there are a lot of resources and hunter's cabins which add up if you take them early C2M5. Agrael's Decision The last mission of Agrael can be quite long. Hopefully you picked logistics as one of your skill (maybe also navigation?). The basic idea is to clear the sailing route by using different huts of magi or moving on the ground. The fog of war will not disappear when you are sailing. Your target is on the middle of the map, but you cannot go there directly. If you have developed Agrael well, the end fight should not pose any treat. Generally I used widely the gating tactics to block and kill any enemies finishing the job with ranged troops or powerful spells. Hints - hill fort - there are not so many creature dwellings around so you may want to stay waiting for the end of the week if there is only a few days left. The Necromancer

C3M1. The Temptation If you like to have a massive army, welcome to Necro campaign. I would suggest to develop Markal early to raise his troops (skeleton archers) and learn (only) dark magic. Then you should have no difficulties with this campaign. Mission one is again about avoiding confrontation against enemy. First you may want to hit the huts of magi and get some more troops from E. Next it is up to you to avoid the enemy and to first go up, E and down again and to underground (visiting hill fort if possible). The end of the mission is thru underground to the N. What happened to me was that I captured the underground town from the W, avoided the enemy which captured the town and garrisoned there. I was able to go to the surface again and clear the N part of the town. Then back to underground and N to end of the mission and fight. Hints - as said raising skills and dark magic is your friend at least - hill fort - remember that every necro troop joins you so take those troops when possible C3M2. The Attack Godric will you again. You can use him or you can develop Markal's army if you have difficulties with the enemy army. First clear your island and develop the town. There could be some enemy attacks which you should counter trying to minimise your losses. When ready, you should ship with hero(es) and maybe visit that cartographer to see your enemy. You can go to the E landing point and take Lorekeep. After that it is just developing Markal and Godric to be ready to fight the last fight. When Lorekeep is developed enough, the (easy) way to enemy town is cleared. When ready, take the enemy town to win the mission. Hints - it is not necessary to fight the Titans early, you should come back and take the exp and artefact when ready - starting town can have level 5 mage guild (I got Puppet master from guild which is very useful) - when you have blindness or other similar spells, you should not use ballista if not skilled (as uncontrolled ballista wakes blinded Colossus / Titan for example) - you may have noticed the importance of the hill fort to save your money (not upgrading all your buildings). C3M3. The Invasion Here you will learn how to build your necro army and towns. You will have two towns, one necropolis and one haven. I did fine only using necro units and converting towns and haven troops to necro. You first task is to explore your island, hitting the hut of magi as usual to find how your enemies just go mindlessly back and fort. When ready you should take the three enemy towns. I took the lower E towns first and left some troops and secondary hero (Isabel) there as it is possible that NE town will send some troops thru the one way portal. Also thru middle N is a hill fort which you can

use. Actually after the first (?) town taken elves will send an army to be you can take and convert to necro troops. It is on ship coming from the middle of map - the river. You may as well take the elves with Markal and continue until you see two shipyards. To the left is the town and some demon land and to the right another town. Take them and after that explore, make necros to join you as usual. When ready, you can take go thru those garrisons to the last town. Take the town and go to the portal which you enemy just took to end the mission. You should do it this way to avoid any scripting problems. Hints - there are a lot of strong necro troops willing to join Markal - also use the tools and help to advance your sailing, you will do it a lot - there is nothing special in demon land, but on the middle there are islands which have status boosters C3M4. The Regicide You will not see any towns but if you have built your necro hero right, you will not have any problems to clear this mission. Hit the hut of magi and follow always the general route opened to you. It will be complicated route visiting different tents and opening gates but generally you will do fine following the route. My way to do the battles was: puppet master (blindness for Titans), raise dead and phantom forces (you can direct enemy retaliation to these forces also). When you come back to the middle of map and underground, it is near the end fight. Actually you can fight the blocking Titans also, maybe blinding the other stack and using my tactics to achieve victory. The last fight should be possible to win if you have enough forces, spells and mana. Hints - you have to choose which forces you want to keep. If you take too many large units, it may be impossible to get them all to the battle ground - there is no hill fort so plan your forces according to that - there is not much to buy so mostly you should take experience over gold from the treasure chests C3M5. The Lord of Heresh The general idea of this mission is as usually to gather a strong army and attack the enemy. There are some directions to remember. S of your Necro town there is a hill fort and level up (and possible enemy army) so clear that area. Also take the resources in the middle and explore the map. One enemy army can come from the see, so prepare for that. Also, as Haven troops leave you, you may want to be evil and turn them to necro or transfer them to other hero than Isabel. One good way to win the map is acquire angel's wings by trying to take the prisoner to your necro town. After that you can fly over mountains to the last fight. Nothing special there if you have the right spells and a large necro army. Still, prepare to fight twice.

Hints - keep a (slow) secondary army near your resources as they are captured from time to time - to get a big necro army, use Markal to fight and turn others troops to necro creatures The Warlock C4M1. The Clanlord -----------------A new hero will appear. Raelag will be participating to the last mission so pay attention to develop him well. Because he has some weak forces in several missions you may take war machines skill and also look those handy magic skills. During this mission you only have about 4 weeks to prepare so use your time well. I used the tactic to take the weakest stacks first and returning to the town from time to time for more troops and spells. At some time you should use the portal to get to the place where there is creature dwelling and other stuff. Also there is boots of swift journey near your time which could help you. Before the time ends, try to reach your town to get the last troops (the time ends in the middle of the week) and sell all the resources to get maximum of troops. Next you will be transferred to the fight area. You could a little clever and take only the weak opponents and let the two strongest enemy players to fight first for an easy fight with the weakened last enemy. And also remember to use the magic well before your first turn in the competition ends. When you win, just go up to the hallway to take the ring to win the mission. Hints - You can spare your Blood Fury troops if you do not place them to the battlefield every time when playing shooters etc. - There is an mana well near the portal's other side - Try if you can rush from the Blood maiden arena to your time in one turn (near the end) - Do not panic if you do not clear all the neutral troops, you will have plenty of time to level up later C4M2. The Expansion -------------------Here is a good map to level up. First you can take the creature dwellings from the upper path underground and go round this sector of underground. Finally the seer will give you instructions how to beat the level. On normal map you can just explore and beat the enemy heroes when needed. There is an important logistics crossroads in about middle of the map where different underground passages etc. cross. You can keep some of your forces here if the enemy keep attacking you from different directions. Also Shadya will join you for the end of the campaign. She could for example support you in acquiring magic skills and a way to transfer them to other heroes. Also level her up. Just capture the enemy towns and visit obelisks to get the location of the tears of Asha. It could be difficult to locate the tears of Asha from the poor picture, but

just keep digging and put your all heroes to work and check what directions you get from digging. When you bring the tears of Asha to you starting town, you should win the game. Hints - you should try to maximise your heroes magic skills and then visit to Dragon Utopia in NE corner of the map for some good artefacts and level 5 spells, and also Mage vault - Do you have a lot of money? Artefact sellers in different towns could have something for you - You can defend the crossroads so that enemy spies do not get thru, but easier is just to let the enemy get some help and kill the not so powerful enemy rescue army - If you teach Shadya how to transfer spells to other heroes, in campaign 6 mission 4 that can be useful if she is also expert as many magic skills as possible C4M3. The Cultists -----------------This mission means that you can not use the tactic with only one big army. You have to defend your possessions against attacks coming from different directions. First I would take the towns from W and N side of the first island. Also prepare for the first demon attacks and possibly enemy hero attacks. After defending the enemy retaliations it is your time to move, take the N or SW portal to take the battle to enemy island. Here are total of 5 new tows which you have to take to end the scenario. All depends now on enemy armies and your movement, so try to take the initiative from the enemy heroes and use the logistics and slowly developing armies to beat the enemy heroes and towns. Also pick the needed stat bonuses all around and from portals. One way of knowing what will happen next was to clear and spy the map as fast as possible to know where the enemy is moving. You can also use the load - reload tactic if all fails. When you are ready and levelled, you can take the last town to continue. Hints - use your tavern heroes for logistics and taking resources - use also heroes to spy and clear the area - that hut of the magi will reveal some important parts of the surface map giving you time to prepare for demon army attacks - you can level both Shayda and Raelag here when the main attack force of enemy is cut down - your defence force could be positioned so that army can reach the defended portals or surface gateway without giving towns to your enemies C4M4. The March --------------During the mission you will not see any towns so reserving your troops is essential. Use the mighty destructive spells to clear the way. You can also change the troops between Raelag and Shayda depending on the mana left. There are also some dungeon troops who can be joining you so try to attack them first to check your luck.

The idea is to check the key master tent and to clear the underground map using portals (sometimes you have to use the same several times to get you where you wanted). When ready, just take the stairs up to meet your enemy. Beat him and go back to the key master to end the mission. Hints - use one big army at the start, later two armies for both of your heroes if you want - use your spells to crush the enemy - there may have been an artefact merchant? C4M5. Raelag's Offer ------------------This mission can wear your huge army or you can skip the large fights and when hitting the level cap, you can finish. In version 1.4. there were quite a powerful armies all the time on the surface so I would use both of the underground routes (Raelag and Shayda) and take those creature dwellings as fast as possible. You can take the underground passage to your target which is SW of the map, where you have to beat the enemy hero. One tactic I used was to crash the enemy towns on surface and just run for safety underground as the strong patrolling enemy heroes do not follow you underground (patch 1.4 only?). You do not have to take all the garrisons as at least I lost some troops in these fights even with resurrection spell. There is a hill fort close to the exit to E underground exit and also nice creature dwellings to the SE corner. Using underground routes (which are connected with portal) and upgraded troops, you should be able to reach the SW corner of the map to fight the last enemy. Hints ----- do not be impressed with your starting troops, really reserve them as the enemies (not neutral stacks) has several times more strength - do not lose your troops, at last (m)any high level - you can hide from enemy in underground level - you can take surface resources and towns but prepare to flee is the enemy is coming with too much troops - you can come later when enemy is patrolling somewhere else - enemy towns give you nothing more than experience - they just collapse - there can be creatures to join you - you can use the other hero (Shayda) to pick those high level troops to your army at the beginning of week - there is a trade post where you can change your resources to gold, as that you need and also resources for dragon upgrade - in version 1.4, is it supposed to take all the garrisons and crush enemy heroes? Maybe if you are fast enough to take all the enemy towns quickly to slow down the enemy heroes but even I took all the enemy towns, several very strong enemy heroes and garrisons were too much for me... The Ranger

C5M1. The Refugees -----------------Here you must defend your garrison. For me it was enough to leave them as they were. The early attacks were easy and if (when) you lose a garrison you can take it or if the demon (red) army have arrived, you can safely lose one and prepare for the attack in your home town. The main issue should be rising your attributes and waiting for demon attack. You can try and explore freely but at first you may have to take the easiest stacks and next week take the needed troops to start more serious adventure. There are some creature dwellings, witch huts and hill fort at the lower S part of the map, which you can use. You should also develop the town to the enemy attack. The mission ends when you beat the demon army without two of your garrisons been on enemy hands at that time. Hints ----- you can use tavern hero for logistic operations - the skill set is up to you but using ranger's special things like avenger ability could be useful - here and later also the ranger skill to be able to attack before the battle starts is very useful (later you can easily kill 3000+ skeleton archers before the battle even starts). For that skill to work you need ranged Sylvan troops like druids and hunters - Findan was never for me direct damage expert rather than a light spells expert using mass haste or resurrection. This made the ranged attacks even more frequent. Also phantom image worked well with master hunters. How about dark magic and puppet master? Well, works well also. C5M2. The Emerald Ones ---------------------Here is an interesting mission. It may be a challenging case so I try to provide more information how I was able to beat the game. First I mapped the resources to the E but did not attack Subbacus nor underground entrance. After that I went back to my town for spells and creatures. Then to the boat and to NE town. You should be there quite early and should equip yourself before attacking. When you have taken this strategic town, you may as well go back and take that gold mine and underground exit and go to the second town. After capturing these two demon towns, you are in good position to repel the possible attacks from the last enemy town. If possible map the sea route before the enemy comes to you so you know when to wait an attack. You may as well take the last town by underground route (building a boat in NE island or taking the long sea voyage. The last town should not be so well prepared as you will be for your attack. If you have problems, you can co-ordinate to get your demon and sylvan army to the SW island at the same time. You had a mission to get 20 emerald dragons...it may be best to do that mission after you have taken care of the enemy. Now is your time to visit the obelisks and get those dragons. Also now your sylvan town can build emerald dragons. When ready, you must just put at least 20 emerald dragons to Findan's army to win the mission.

Hints - If you have problems to take the NE town, try to be faster and think new logistic solutions such as using summon creatures (meaning developing your home town magic guild quickly) or using two boats to get your army to the top condition before taking the town - Having problems with the sea attacks from SW town? Well, you may even recruit troops from the middle town by using summon creatures (which is overall very useful spell) - Also before taking SW demon town, you may use summon creatures if you need more (high level) troops C5M3. The Defence ----------------Your main town is under attack! First you play a fight where you are supposed to lose and just wear the enemy forces. I like best to kill enemy ranged units first. If you move your forces a bit forward but not outside of the wall (?) enemy melee units should come and stick to your defences next to your wall. After losing your unknown hero, you gain control of Findan who has a mighty army. With this army you should wipe the enemy from your city. As before taking enemy ranged units makes the melee units to do something they will regret, like trying to harm my troops...By the way, I tried to save my dragons and other high level creatures but you may have to sacrifice some troops (as I did not have resurrection yet). When you own the sylvan town again, it is time for your next move. As I wanted to upgrade my hero, I went to the E to clear the road to purple army and during my journey some enemies wanted to challenge me (and gave me some good experience). After have mage guild 5 (and resurrection spell) I was ready to sail to the next town pointed friendly by the hut of the magi. I split my forces so that the new hero gave me his weak forces and I only took the emerald dragons and left all other forces to save my only town. When I went to the next town to the W, I also plundered all the sea treasures etc. as my town needed the resources badly. Still I managed to take the second town before the 3rd week. After that it is time to take the resources and advance to the general direction of E. The road leads you to some enemy garrisons. You can use summon creatures if you need more troops or use your other heroes. When you have gone to the middle S of the map, you can turn to the W or E. If you turn to W and pick the first needed hero, enemy hero can go past you. If you turn E, you will get to last enemy town and underground exit that leads to the second hero. Well, it is up to you. This road is quite straight forward so adventure forward until your objectives start to end. At some time you should check if your first town is hitting the objective (you can stop buying dragons for example so that you have enough time to check the whole map). Hints ----- You can use tavern heroes to clear the sea and also pick the hunters cabin near the E landing place (be alert for enemy hero and go to your ship if in trouble)

C5M4. The Archipelago --------------------No towns during this mission so reserve your troops and use creature dwellings. You can take a boat or go straight underground. There is nothing special on the sea, but it is up to you. Now the underground is a way to get to the islands on the surface. There are some twists and turns and dead ends. Generally you just go forward and take the neutral stacks as you go, also picking the many status boosters. You may want to go to the NW corner first and the NE corner road leads to the end of the mission. During your exploration, you will finish the objective of finding ancient artefacts. When you are about to leave underground at the middle of the map, you are about the meet some small demon armies, which you will destroy. The mission ends when you kill (or not?) Biara. Hints - hunters are quite good forces here. There is a start bonus and hunters cabin - also hill fort to upgrade your forces (hunters) - take your time to level up Findan - you do not need much gold or resources here so concentrate on experience and your army - you wonder if at the end you should sail with your boat to anywhere else? Well, there is absolutely nothing there so just finish the mission... - there are forces who want to join you C5M5. The Vampire Lord ---------------------This mission was very joyful as there are many towns to conquer and some necro troops to kill. It is also mission where you mostly do not need to worry about many battle frontiers, just go forward and use the logistics solutions like low level heroes, summon creatures and town portal spells. First you have your own island with two towns. You can mop out the stacks and mark resources, after which you can take the blocking garrison. By now your hero should be so strong that those troops inside the garrison should not cause any problem. Using portal you end up on island in S side of the map. Here you can visit the seer to get the mission to win the game. You should also take the necro town to the E side of the island, looking for possible enemy heroes coming from the N portal. Underground you have a quest to get those dwarfen artefacts, which are easy to find when adventuring underground. There are two enemy town in SW corner of the underground and middle of the underground. You can take them as seems fit. Be careful not to let enemy hero to slip your defences when taking either town (mapping the route to the town helps to plan you actions). Also remember that summon creatures works also underground, taking the nearest town from underground or surface. In NE corner of the underground is a portal to the last island of the map, where you can meet powerful necro heroes or not depending your speed and logistics skills. One way of winning the mission is to get all the dwarfen artefacts back to the seer when underground is secured and take the portal to the last island and look for our last enemy - Nicolai. After beating him

(happened me for the first town), you win the mission if you have at least one phoenix with you when the fight ends. Hints - here are a lot of the intelligent ways to move your troops to the main fighting hero (hopefully Findan). - level up Findan, he will be the only one appearing on the later missions - keep your enemies where you want them, in front of your most powerful hero and army - there are also uses for your two other powerful heroes like mapping the not so well defended resources etc. The Mage C6M1. The Defiant Mage ---------------------Welcome to the last campaign. You will have a new hero Zehir. Zehir can be an efficient mage. I would took only luck as might skill and concentrated on magic. Summoning magic is good for him, also any other. You cannot not come wrong with dead magic for example or light magic. Just develop magic skills fast to expert level and maybe use intelligence (from enlightment skill set) to boost your mana pool. Zehir is one of the characters doing the last mission. First mission can be challenging or easy if you know the tactics. Usually bonus do not matter but here I would take Djinns to strengthen your weak army. First you should mark those troop buildings (horned demons) and skeletons in the middle of map. Second you can go to the enemy town before hitting level 10 (to develop it to your benefit) or you can take care of other business (rising attributes) and hit the town later. Your key to victory is not to loose much of your army by using efficiently your troops, skills and summoning. The town is in the east side of the map. When you win the town and you are at level 10, you will win the mission. Hints - you start with the element summoning spell, so use it in tough places - as usual slowly moving enemy troops are much easier than ranged troops - your troops turn to elements if the stack (even small one) dies, use it at the end or as needed - artefact merchant can have something for you - did you know that Gremlins can repair your mechanical troops like golems and gargoyles? - if you know what to do, you can sprint to enemy town and take it fast - do we really want to beat those phoenix out there? C6M2. The Liberation --------------------

This is a mission where you can use that Artificer skill, so have fun and use it. You must build a town structure, make artefacts and put them on to your troops (only one per troop, sorry) with town's special ability. Magic guilds end up to level 3 so no fun from that side. At the beginning you may guess what to do; take those resources as fast as possible. Generally direction south do not possess any threats so you may take some demon stacks and concentrate to moving north to portal. There will be enemy coming before the end of the week, but you should be able to beat him. Next you can go after those other heroes and take the Necro towns from the other island. I would not suggest you to take your target town at the early stage of the mission as it is heavily guarded. After rising your attributes and gathering experience. You do not have to take down all the neutral stacks if you do not want as it takes quite much time and there is the experience limit anyway. Are you ready to meet quite a lot of Cavaliers/Paladins? Go to the middle south of the map to the town and beat the Cavalier stack. It could be challenging but just have enough troops and good logistics. You wonder if the other side of the island would be easier with those Wrights? You may try yourself if you want challenge. Now taking those two enemy towns (including Lorekeep) should be easy after that Cavalier stack. You can go back now if you want to your first town thru southern demon land and pick the necessary items / resources. Now you can adventure and when ready go to your target town. I liked the end fight with strong Academy troops. If you have dark magic (Puppet Master), it will be easy. I had summoning and light magic which worked ok also. The fight is normal with large armies but with no enemy hero! Hints - leave resources which you have difficulties to take without casualties. You can take them later - you can again use your weak and small stack troops to turn them to elements to win some battles - you wonder if you need those Haven troops (they can not be upgraded) on the second island? Well, I did not have any use for them as Academy and Necro troops were enough for me - you should develop Necro towns as you have more than enough of money. You can use those forces as cannon fodder or backup - develop Colossus as fast as possible as you will be fighting those later and you need high level troops - use for once those amulets to your troops when taking the enemy Acedemy town - take care of your logistics (other heroes carrying troops to your main hero etc) as there are some powerful stacks out there and you want to be prepared C6M3. The Triumvirate --------------------This mission you start on the road looking for someway to go. I prefer to go underground to pick Godric as you need him to finish the mission. You can also capture those peasant huts on the way.

Once underground, just take the upper road to Godric, who is captured in the upper middle, road starting from the east. One idea could be that Godric continues with Haven troops to surface as Zehir takes more time to capture all the mines etc. as you may need those resources later. With Godric on your side, troops in the first garrison will join you and you have easy time to capture the first town after the garrison. There are total of four Haven towns to capture. I would take next the one S to your first town and then one in the middle of town, leaving the NE town to the last. I had some difficulties to take the last town as the enemy heroes and troops are quite powerful in version 1.4 at least? Well, you can pick up Findan to help you out or make some of the Colossus neutral stack to join you. When you are ready with Heaven and levelling up, you should go to Southern way to enemy necro town. I took it but if you prefer summon creatures spell or town portal to work with Haven town, maybe you can leave it. But still I got a good level 5 spell from that so...After taking what you want, you should go to SW corner of the map to face Markal. All your heroes must fight the Markal once so adjust your troops and artefacts accordingly. Findan needs to take the town so keep that on mind. After this series of battle, the mission is over. Hints - Try to make Colossus to join you and use the hill fort to upgrade them is needed - Summon creatures can speed up the process of capturing and moving your forces as there are no low level heroes to be your troop carriers - You may take Findan early to support your plans C6M4. The Alliance -----------------Here is a joyful map as you can advance like a attack force from the south to north. You will be fighting with three of your previous heroes: Godric, Findan and Zehir. Generally I did well using method to advance every hero to their natural directions; Godric to the left, Findan to the middle and Zehir to the right. There are also three Necro towns for each other. I worked well with the initial troops for the whole scenario, taking Godric the later Haven troops and towns. I also took only those resources and made market places and town structures to Necro towns and rushed to the Haven territory. There are two gates to the left and middle of the map, where Godric and Findan should go. Zehir can take a little longer way to the portal to the key structure and portal to the right middle. You can use portal several times to get to level up three. This mission is about capturing towns so just use the hero who needs the levelling and capture all the towns and do some character development before going to Raelag. After that you can just advance to town where Isabel should be. Hints - Summon Creatures spell can be handy as no chaining your level 1 heroes to move your troops around - Any spells you need (Mage Guilds in 8 towns)? - You can also transfer all the interesting spells if one of your

characters (Shadya) had that skills, very useful as in the last mission resurrection and summon phoenix spells would be handy - I managed to do with the creatures from Haven towns, they were more than enough - Of course you used those hill fort after the two garrisons before taking the first towns and later for creature updates? - after this mission there is no real possibility to get spells or rise attributes other than rising your level - This means that in the last mission you should have well balanced heroes or you have to move the troops between heroes which could mean problems with morale - so prepare C6M5. Zehir's Hope -----------------The last mission. Your party will include Godric, Realeg, Zehir and Findan with their natural troops. Now almost all of the spells and levels have been achieved already so it is pure fighting to the end. Hopefully your heroes have top attributes, skills and magic (like summon phoenix and resurrection from magic guilds or learnt from someone else - remember end of the previous mission). Before the first castle everyone has an enemy Garrison between them and enemy castle. You may just rush to the enemies for the first of series of large fights. Try not to loose much of your troops here. When everyone has done their job to kill some demonic creatures one can hit the castle. You may think of arranging your troops between heroes depending your heroes strengths and weaknesses. I saw no need to do any changes during the whole mission as every hero was doing just fine. I will not spoil the surprise but you may found some additional enemy creatures coming to play when hitting the right (wrong) target. Think also when and who will hit the target if needed. You may have wondered where you should use the Banish skill - here you found the very satisfying answer. The mission is quite straightforward always involving every hero to fight in a row. There is no special tactics rather than spare your troops with resurrection skills and using clever blocking / fighting / tactics. If you use a lot of mana points, remember to use the magic well before taking the other castle. Also remember that you do not need to put all of your (low level) forces to play if they are fried during the fight. Just experience and enjoy the always good feeling of finish something. If you have problems with Gating (computer crashing), you may use my experience mentioned earlier to avoid the crash. Hopefully it works also for you. Hints - use banish ability for (too) easy victory (Raelag at least) - enemy is using area damaging spells so think where to position you weaker and stronger forces to counter the enemy damage or even spare your weak troops for the next battle - Raeleg gets all war machines at the beginning of the mission

(hopefully you have that skill developed for him). For other heroes you can exchange war machines if needed. - Also troops can be exchanged if needed D. Some general tips -------------------1. Save often and to different places. This is normal but sometimes overlooked. You may have to come back to your earlier save if something special happens making the game unbeatable 2. Generally the game can be played as you wish but mostly the previously selected skills of your characters are worthwhile to be developed fast 3. What is the purpose of the game really? It is to beat your enemy; with your stronger army or better use of your skills and tactics. Logistics and fighting skills are both important. 4. Developing towns or capturing creature dwellings is important. I try to think for the current week to have optimum troops which can be recruited / created at the first day of the next week. 5. You can not carry your precious troops to next mission so developing your attributes, experience / levelling and magic skills are also important. It could mean that before rushing to the next mission you could use some time developing your character. 6. Overall tactics is surprisingly important (and the skill is also not a waste). Where you position your troop before the battle start quite much decides how the fight will start (computer AI). 7. You do not have to position all of your (weak) troops if fighting ranged troops or troops with magic skills. 8. I like higher tier troops more than low level as you have more hit point to cover from retaliation and overall performance is better. But this depends on situation as for example Necros should use those skeleton archers and other troops as their main attacking fist. 9. There are a lot of small details you can do to achieve better performance with your troops and skills. Many times with careful planning and tactics you may end of losing no troops at all. 10. Initiative. I love the initiative system as it makes new tactical things possible. For example you can slower or haste your troops or cast the next enemy character supposed to move with puppet master etc. You can also plan when is your time to move and when not. Sometimes your faster troops can even hit and return before enemy troops reacting. 11. This can be personal but I prefer mass effects and indirect ways of damaging more than direct damage. Direct damage is cool on early on the mission but against 50+ Paladins may not be enough -

but spells like mass slow, confusion, puppet master or Arcane Shield to your strongest stack could mean more on the long run. 12. Most of skills are really useful if practiced in the right way. So keep thinking the way to use them in different situations. For example Phantom Forces spell can be useful to double your ranged strength, in focusing enemy fire (and hopefully missing the turn because of the incorporeal nature of the spell), blocking your enemy to reach your weak ranged force etc. 13. Every battle is different so positioning your troops remembering the current terrain and to protect your weaker troops, to think your enemy positioning, using blocking or troops with only 1 unit as blocker or spell users can all be useful. Trying different things is part of the fun! 14. You usually win if you take the initiative during the mission, attacking first, be faster capturing resources etc. 15. Remember. In campaigns enemies are the dumb and controlled by computer, you are the only real heroes of might and magic there! E. Copyright -----------This document is copyright 2007 of K.K.Rouhiainen. It is intended for private use only and no part of it may be posted anywhere else without my permission. Please contact me by email if you want use it in some other form or forum than www.gamesfaq.com. If you have any comments or ideas how to make this walktru even better, please email me and I will include your effort with proper credit to this document. I appreciate if you use the same layout than I have used in hints, or tactics for example. F. Credits ---------Thanks to every people who have been involved in creating such a great games of Heroes of Might and Magic over the years. Thanks to Ubisoft and Nival Entertaiment for HoMMV. Thanks to you helping to finish and reading my guide. You know who you are. G. Personal Notes ----------------Having experience of several decades of computer gaming I still wonder why the stories or story development have not been more sophisticated overall. I know a lot of interesting modern stories from books, movies or theatre, but game industry seem to lack the ways to make the story the centre of the product. Maybe it is such a new industry but hopefully it starts to develop also new ways of

making sense of wonder. This do not relate only to HoMM 5, it is a larger issue. And I do not mean I could make better stories, rather than there are good stories around. Also some great computer games with good stories but not too many. Also I may be too old but there are many of us around.