" King Jarkonas III, grandson of Ethania, lay on his deathbed and pondered the fate of his weakening kingdom; the constant struggle with its enemies had taken a heavy toll. He knew that if the kingdom were to again prosper, it would need aid from distant relatives. The final choice he had to make was this: send help to recruit Crazy Uncle Ivan the Warmonger and his barbarian clan, or send a search party out to look for the family's wayward son Joseph, a wizard of some repute."
Crazy Uncle Ivan is the fourth scenario of the Descendants campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Price of Loyalty. The player must choose between this scenario and The Wayward Son, and either Joseph or Ivan will be available for hire in every subsequent scenario.
Rescue your crazy uncle Ivan. Find him before the first day of the fourth month or it will be no help to your kingdom.OffBck
By following his tracks, the heroes managed to locate the barbarian Ivan in the far-away desert town, and brought him back to his kin in Jarkonas.
Walkthrough[]
The kingdom of Jarkonas has a single barbarian hero with a few knight creatures in the southwestern corner. By capturing the nearby neutral warlock town, it's possible to build up and hire creatures.
This is a time-based map, so logistics as a starting bonus is a good idea.
The player should head right until they see a Warlock town and capture it. Next, upgrade it to a castle and hire a secondary hero. Again, this secondary hero is here to transfer forces while the main hero handles the combat. Let the main hero attack the creatures to the east of the castle, then the secondary hero collects. There are two creature dwellings for here - pick either sprites or halflings, but not both, as the moral penalty may be costly.
Once the player gets the second week of troops, start heading northwest. Attack both the ogre and the orc. The ogre guards resources, so let the secondary hero collect, while the orcs guard the all helpful boots. Grab them and start heading northwards. Attack the guards guarding the sawmill, then head right to capture another Warlock town. If the player had minotaurs, they can also upgrade them here. Gather the troops, head east again; ignore the spell obelisks, as the player won't really need them, and they will only serve to slow the player down. Eventually, the hero will run into a dragon stack, with a lot of orc towers nearby. Dismiss the weakest stack and hire all orcs; while they are very slow, they help to soak up the damage in the battle ahead. Once the player has defeated the dragons,, head east again to capture the Knight town.
Upgrade the town to a castle and build a shipyard, then a boat. The tent nearby is the password to a gateway north of the player's town/castle that leads directly to their main warlock castle. The player should combine their troops, board the boat, and start heading southwest. Undock at the desert island and capture the mines. Dismiss the weakest stack and replace them with sprites. Head south, then east to upgrade the orcs to orc chieftain, then west. Follow the path all the way to reach desert terrain again.
The creatures blocking the path are mainly phoenixes, ending with a stack of bone dragons. Be sure to hire all the genies found here; they'll make a short work out of them. The 100-200 sprites the player has gotten so far can almost 1-shot anything found here. After the bone dragons, head north to see a town guarded by ghosts. Be sure to dismiss any first-tier creatures before engaging, as ghosts will always target first-tier creatures first. If not careful, the player may face hundreds of ghosts! Once they are defeated, take the town.