"The Forest Guard is Erathia's eyes and ears. We go where we are needed most and that is usually places difficult for traditional fighting forces to reach. We are shadows of the forest that see all and bring silent death with a single, unseen bowshot. You have done well in your training, Gelu, but now has come the time to take the final test. A small valley near Gaia's Crest will be the site of this trial. Clear the region of all the enemies to earn your place among the ranks of the Forest Guard. Good luck."
—Introduction
Graduation Exercise is the first scenario of the Elixir of Life campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death.
Walkthrough[]
Defeat all Gelu's enemies win the scenario. However, if Gelu is defeated in combat, the scenario is lost. Your heroes are limited to level 10, but Gelu and two other heroes will carry their experience, skills and spells on to the next scenario.OffBck
Gelu, a warrior, has trained hard and has to compete for the final test to join Erathia's Forest Guard. The goal is to defeat all enemies. There are three enemy towns scattered around the area. To start, Gelu has to recruit five grand elves and ten battle dwarves and capture the nearest Rampart town. The town is protected by a hundred skeletons outside, while in the town itself lie ten grand and wood elves, ten battle dwarves and 20 centaur captains. Once done, Gelu has to go south and defeat the Stronghold forces. Close to the Stronghold town is the green keymaster tent, which can unlock a border guard in the northwest.
To reach the northwestern area, Gelu has to defeat a horde of medusa. There he can find another Rampart town (guarded by some undead forces), as well as a light-blue keymaster tent, which can unlock the southern path. Going to southwest, Gelu can find the second town, a Necropolis, which needs to be captured. Between the Necropolis and the Stronghold lies an alchemist lab; near it is a Pandora's Box, containing five master genies and five efreet sultans as enemies. Upon defeating them, Gelu receives 20 gems, 20 crystals, 5000 gold and +1 to all primary skills.
Afterwards, Gelu has to seek the red keymaster's tent to unlock the entrance to the subterranean ground. Once the Dungeon inside the cave is captured, Gelu wins the scenario.
Towns[]
Strategy[]
Rushing first the middle Rampart, and then the southern Stronghold is possible due to the option to start with 20 Sharpshooters and 5 grand elves coupled with Gelu's Archery. Ignore expanding the Stronghold apart from Hall of Valhalla and marketplace and focus on having more sharpshooters. Break through the top road to get another neutral Rampart in the top-left corner. If done fast this fast enough, the enemy won't be able to open the tents and there will be an opportunity to either amass a small army and do a push via the left road, or attack from two sides at once - while being able to select the exact moment at will.
Getting Wisdom and Air Magic or Earth Magic is still very useful for Gelu due to the bug described below. Rolling good Intelligence-based resource-producing heroes early makes this scenario a breeze even on Impossible. Since most of the enemies here can be defeated by enough sharpshooters alone, having gold dragons or even unicorns is not really needed here.
All heroes are limited to level 10; Gelu and his two strongest heroes will cross over to the next scenario.
Bugs[]
- This scenario features a bug unique among SoD campaigns (with a slight exception of the secret campaign, which doesn't have the mentioned limitations at all): neither high-level mage guild nor overpowered, campaign-breaking spells (namely dimension door and fly) are banned (they are properly banned in scenarios 2-4 in Elixir of Life though).
