"The Emperor's Archmage has made a crucial discovery, plucked from the thoughts of Kraeger himself as he fled the battle for the third artifact piece. Kraeger is not alone in his treachery! A cabal of Necromancers within the heart of the Empire itself has guided him towards the artifacts they sought.
Now we may strike at the source of this chaos which threatens the empire. Gather the Emperor's armies and destroy the Cabal and with it the traitor who has evaded you these many months."
—Intro, if arriving from Aurora Borealis
"It appears that Kraeger fell under the sway of the Necromancers by means of magic. With the power of the Helm you have freed his mind and put an end to his rebellion. With this knowledge in mind, the Emperor may show leniency for his rebellion when he faces the justice of the Empire.
But regardless of such matters, you have reclaimed the final piece of the artifact and now its full power is at the command of the Empire. Take up its might and wield it against our true foes! Destroy the Necromancers and their nest of treachery and deceit!"
—Intro, if arriving from Betrayal's End
Corruption's Heart is the eighth and last scenario of the The Price of Loyalty campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Price of Loyalty.
At last, you have the opportunity and the facilities to rid the Empire of the necromancer's evil. Eradicate them completely, and you will be sung as a hero for all time.OffBck
The heroes of The Empire managed to overcome the armies of the necromancers and their allies, and the Emperor hailed them for their victory.
Walkthrough[]
The Empire starts out with a single Wizard castle and hero. If the player chose the Arrow's Flight scenario instead of The Abyss, they'll have a +2 daily wood bonus, and an elven alliance that makes all neutral elf and grand elf stacks join them. If they chose to play the optional scenario Betrayal's End, they'll have the full Battle Garb of Anduran, instead of just the Helmet and Breastplate.
The green player has five castles and two towns, spread out over the northern islands on the map. The yellow and purple players have four castles each, located on the southwestern island. The red player, the hardest opponent, has five castles on the southern island.
Pick either magi or estates. The extra gold will help in the long run to unlock titans early.
Good news about this island map is, the AI are locked in their islands and hardly attack the player. leaving the player the luxury of time to build at their leisure, but the enemy has more castles, so the player will be overwhelmed with numbers if they take too long. Red is at the far south of the map, beginning with hundreds of bone dragons/vampires/liches. There's a bug in this map that if red has access to dimension door spell, it may attempt to teleport out of the southern island and slaughter anything in its path. When that happens, the player has no choice but to reload or restart.
Hire a second hero to grab the treasure chests; collect gold instead of experience. Barbarian is a good choice, because the player does not need luck or leadership, due to the Anduran artifact, and since the player will face a lot of combat, higher combat over spell stats is preferred. Once the player has made a choice, gather forces (be sure to pass the artifact as well) and send the main hero to recruit elves guarding the gold mine and attack the minotaur to the east and the hydras to the west. Board the boat, undock to the northwest of the nearest island, and attack the knight castle. Send the second hero to the wizard castle to board the boat that was guarded by the minotaur earlier. Hire another hero to collect the goodies on this knight island as well as the lighthouse. While doing that, send the main hero aboard the boat again, head northeast, and undock at the Barbarian town. Capture the barbarian town, head north to hire trolls and also capture the nearby Barbarian castle. Let the hero who boarded the second boat continue to head northwest until arriving at an island filled with resources (above the barbarian town). Let the same hero head east to find an island with a tent.
With the main hero, board the boat and head west to a necromancer town. Conquer it and cross through the monolith (take note of the tent password nearby). The player can stop the AI from attacking the Necromancer castle by blocking the monolith with another hero. On this new island, capture the Sorceress castle nearby, then the Wizard castle to the south. Be sure to defeat any heroes that are approaching the newly captured castles. Then go to the town to the northeast on the same island. Approach the next island in the monolith to the south; again, block this monolith with another hero to prevent enemy invasion.
This part of the island is much larger and a lot trickier to defend/capture. One suggestion is to capture two castles here, keep both of them empty, jump between the castles with the town portal spell, and flatten any approaching heroes. Once the enemy heroes are severely weakened, the player will be able to capture all castles with ease. Be sure to grab the boots artifact to speed things up! Once this is done, gather all armies and approach the red hero guarding a tent in the southwest corner. Once the password is secured, gather all armies to a main hero, town portal to the first wizard castle, board the boat, and head south.
This is the final island, guarded by hundreds of bone dragons, vampires and liches. Once the player goes through the tent, the enemy heroes will directly chase after them to engage them. Try using mass slow to make things easier, as attempting to slow 1 creature will be counted with a haste. Anther method is to allow the foe to cast a spell first, to prevent a counter when casting slow on the bone dragon stack. Once the bone dragons are defeated, capture all their castles and end the campaign.
"The might of our vast empire is maintained throughout the ages, with the great wisdom of the Emperor to guide us and the strength of our noble heroes to protect us.
You claim that Viscount Kraeger - a former friend and compatriot of yours - did not act of his own will in this uprising, but was held under the magical influence of the necromancers. Be that as it may, he has been seen by the people of our lands to raise arms against the Empire. Such an act cannot go unpunished.
You may rejoice however, for the Emperor has chosen to grant you all lands and titles that Kraeger possessed, in return for your great service and obedience.
Such is the price of loyalty."
Notes[]
- Before starting, be aware that there is a chance that the Red player will acquire Dimension Door early and will use it to escape the confines of the final island. If this occurs it will make it almost impossible to win the campaign as they will almost immediately seek you out with a much more powerful force not intended for you to fight till the end of the campaign. To avoid this at the early stages of the game take a boat as south as possible to uncover the coast around the final island. During the enemies turn, look to see what Red is doing (may require you to slow down enemy movement speed to "trot"), if they are using Dimension Door to access small patches of land around the perimeter of the island it is advisable to restart the level. If they are doing this and you continue the game they will eventually find a spot of land that will allow them to cross the river on the western edge of the final island with Dimension Door making it possible to prematurely attack you on the island that Purple and Yellow are on. It is unclear if this was a result of oversight on the level design or done intentionally to randomly add a level of difficulty to the campaign making some playthroughs unwinnable.