Corporeal Punishment

Template:Campaign Long Live the KingThis is the third scenario of the Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia campaign Long Live the King.

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Backstory

The war in Erathia is the greatest thing that could have happened for the nation of Deyja. A war of this scale is an endless harvest for our undead armies. Today we shall feast, and tomorrow we shall conquer Erathia for ourselves.

Briefing

A rogue Death Knight does not wish to take part in the glory that will be our invasion of Erathia. He believes that by remaining out of the fighting, his lands will be spared from any counterattack by the Erathians. It is time we taught him a small lesson regarding obedience.

Cinematic Briefing

A Death Knight named Mot, refuses to obey King Gryphonheart’s orders. An example must be made so others will not contemplate such traitorous action. Mot has insulated himself with his armies. Infiltrate his troops, kill him, and take his command. When he is dead, resurrect his corpse and employ him in your ranks.

In-Game

You receive a letter from the Lich King Gryphonheart. "Commander: It would seem as though one of my generals, a Death Knight by the name of Mot, does not wish to follow my orders, and believes that we should not attack Erathia. This is fine, as we do not need him for our plans."

"We do, however, need his armies, and I can not allow his disobedience to go unpunished. Your task is to find Mot and slay him. He will then be raised and made to serve as a minion in your own army. Succeed in this task and you shall replace him as my new general."

Even gazing at the signature of the undead King sends a cold chill through you. You quickly pen a response, stating simply, "It shall be done." You must not let Mot defeat you.

Quest/Objective

Kill the enemy leader Mot.

Victory message, "TBA"

Defeat message, ???

Map Details

Difficulty: Normal

Map Size: Large ???

Next Map: From Day to Night

Total Castles: 5

Underground: Yes

Heroes

You start with one (fixed) hero, as well as the Collar of Conjuring, and maybe the Spyglass.

The enemy starts with Mot.

Maximum Heroes: No maximum

Maximum Level: No maximum

Starting Options

The weakest starting bonus is the Scroll of Protection from Earth, because you will never use it. Next weakest is the Pendant of Death; it has little value in an undead vs. undead situation. However, it may allow you to pass a Border Guard in the next scenario, but this is too complicated to analyze, and you have no way of knowing about that yet anyway. But 25 Zombies make a real difference at the start of the scenario, and that is very important for the rest of the scenario.

Tips

• This scenario has a bug-like feature, and it propagates through the rest of the campaign. There is an inaccessible region on the right side of the map. If you didn't get the Spyglass last scenario, then the Artifacts there, the Ogre's Club of Havoc and the Pendant of Death, cannot be obtained, unless you learn Fly or Dimension Door. These Artifacts presumably give you access to other inaccessible areas in the following scenarios.
• You have to make an important choice early on. Do you invest heavily in your central city, and maybe lose it, or does that investment mean that you will be able to defend it better? In the event, it will not matter.
• You do not have enough resources to build up both of your cities fully, and you shouldn't do that in any case. Ultimately, don't invest anything at all in second-level production buildings. Let your enemy do that, and then capture his cities. Just concentrate on pumping out troops. You are resource-limited in this scenario.
• This scenario is easier than it looks. You start outnumbered 3-2, but the map is strongly compartmentalized, and the AI is not able to concentrate its forces effectively. In fact, you should be able to use your interior lines of communication to outnumber your enemies locally at all times. Napoleon did this. The only difficulty will be in not killing Mot before you have completed all the map-related missions.