Majesty: The fantasy kingdom sim video Walkthrough/Let's play

[AFnord]

If anyone is having any trouble with Majesty or its expansion, I've created a complete walkthrough/let's play for the game, detailing how to beat every level in a semi-reliable way (as there is a large random element to the game, I can't promise that these strategies will work every single time).
Playlist

The Barren Waste

Spoiler

[video=youtube;l3kMykMW1bE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3kMykMW1bE&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=1&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Free the slaves

Spoiler

[video=youtube;CaRUbet8k90]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaRUbet8k90&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=2&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Hold off the goblin hordes

Spoiler

[video=youtube;T-o1UOBCGD4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-o1UOBCGD4&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=3&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Rescue the prince

Spoiler

[video=youtube;z23FXOuOh9Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z23FXOuOh9Y&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=4&feature=plpp_video[/video]

A deal with the demon

Spoiler

[video=youtube;3ErGwq5WZ2Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ErGwq5WZ2Y&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=5&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Quest for the Crown

Spoiler

[video=youtube;5oer03Nn46g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oer03Nn46g&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=6&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Slay the mighty Dragon

Spoiler

[video=youtube;BhD3ynZwXPA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhD3ynZwXPA&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=7&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The forsaken land

Spoiler

[video=youtube;ZSUDX8i2vhY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSUDX8i2vhY&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=8&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The Bell the Book and the Candle

Spoiler

[video=youtube;6L1a7JmF0Mc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L1a7JmF0Mc&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=9&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Brashnards Ultimate Sphere of Power

Spoiler

[video=youtube;aNWnGViSJNU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNWnGViSJNU&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=10&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The wizard's curse

Spoiler

[video=youtube;azUaElvVAsk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azUaElvVAsk&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=11&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Quest for the magic ring

Spoiler

[video=youtube;mlhtZZBXka0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlhtZZBXka0&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=12&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Tomb of the Dragon King

Spoiler

[video=youtube;dLfy4H3F2wc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLfy4H3F2wc&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=13&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Elven Trechery

Spoiler

[video=youtube;IY4pMJ_jyEA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY4pMJ_jyEA&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=14&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Quest for the holy Chalice

Spoiler

[video=youtube;X4Bj_zeCE9w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Bj_zeCE9w&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=15&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The Fertile Plane

Spoiler

[video=youtube;w08Qb1YsMpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w08Qb1YsMpM&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=16&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The Dark Forest

Spoiler

[video=youtube;pBQqvuUBgd8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQqvuUBgd8&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=17&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Vengeance of the Lich Queen

Spoiler

[video=youtube;3Q12Ddw1CN0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q12Ddw1CN0&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=18&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The Day of Reckoning

Spoiler

[video=youtube;H8T3thO8Hgs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8T3thO8Hgs&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=19&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Demo level

Spoiler

[video=youtube;1YoZNCWXCxg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YoZNCWXCxg&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=20&feature=plpp_video[/video]

 

[AFnord]

Expansion levels

Scions of Chaos

Spoiler

[video=youtube;4VU-TEUn6Nk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VU-TEUn6Nk&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=21&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Clash of Empires

Spoiler

[video=youtube;zhnDMJzbDuQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhnDMJzbDuQ&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=22&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Legendary Heroes

Spoiler

[video=youtube;F-Fuc59URz0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Fuc59URz0&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=23&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Trade Routes

Spoiler

[video=youtube;TpThIo0pkuc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpThIo0pkuc&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=24&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Urban Renewal

Spoiler

[video=youtube;JvRENHun7Ws]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvRENHun7Ws&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=25&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Valley of the Serpent

Spoiler

[video=youtube;aAfJZZ26Z14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAfJZZ26Z14&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=26&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Rise of the Ratmen

Spoiler

[video=youtube;yffcc9qn_LA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yffcc9qn_LA&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=27&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Darkness Falls

Spoiler

[video=youtube;9LY4ReX9VY0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LY4ReX9VY0&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=28&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The Siege

Spoiler

[video=youtube;XxdN3xZWJ94]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxdN3xZWJ94&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=29&feature=plpp_video[/video]

The fortress of Ixmil

Spoiler

[video=youtube;cKKnVdd6Qos]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKnVdd6Qos&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=30&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Vigil for a Fallen Hero

Spoiler

[video=youtube;680OAbdL5B4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=680OAbdL5B4&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=31&feature=plpp_video[/video]

Spires of Death

Spoiler

[video=youtube;4vDwwc-FVkw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vDwwc-FVkw&list=PL593C1FB1AA607899&index=32&feature=plpp_video[/video]

 

[Spiderman]

There's a few of us old-timers here who can also help out (I can't view the videos right now as they're blocked from my machine).

Most of the quests aren't all that difficult as you mostly just have to be able to withstand maybe the initial monster assaults while you build up your town and recruit heros. I would advise in general to get Elves when you can for the economic boost as gold pretty much trumps the other non-human races.

There's two or three that's problematic and make you only want to do it once, just to finish

The Spires of Death

Spoiler

The Spires increase the monsters difficulty when destroyed so keep your hero recruitment low, just get good quality level heros.

Whatever quest has you destroying barrows (Legendary Heros?)

Spoiler

Again, monster strength increases for each barrow destroyed. Use Earthquake to get rid of them in one fell swoop

 

[AFnord]

I used a very different strategy on those two levels actually.

Spires of Death

Spoiler

At first I had a rather limited hero count, 8 paladins in total, to keep the monster strength low, and during that time I focused on building up a very strong economy. Once I felt that my paladins were powerful enough, and the economy was strong enough, I started to spam powerful heroes (wizards, paladins, helians). I've found this strategy to be a lot safer and easier to pull off than the constant low hero-count strategy, which can be quite tricky when you need to take down the last 2-3 spires

Legendary heroes

Spoiler

The safest way to beat this map is rather gimmicky, you should build up a very strong economy (as always on harder maps) and then just spam wizard's towers. The barrows can be destroyed by using magic, so once you have the money to do so, just beat all barrows down to low health, lower the game speed and finish them all off in quick succession

All the levels have been finished, and the videos have been uploaded, but there are probably better strategies for some of the levels. And my playthrouhg of "the siege" was a bit clumsy.


And yes, elves are almost always the better option. The added economic boost is better than the option to build ballista towers. Dwarfs are also a bit too slow to be really good, they usually end up arriving too late when you need them to do something. Gnomes have their use in multiplayer, but in singleplayer, I never use them.

And in regards to the forces of order vs the forces of discord vs barbarians, I find that (in singleplayer) the forces of order usually win. Paladins are just so darn good, and the lower price on healing spells and reliance on buffs rather than debuffs are all good reasons why it is better to go that rout. That being said, priestesses are also very good, and their high damage output & "meat" shields (skeletons) make them one of the game's best hero types. Warriors of discord are useful in the expansion, once you have the economy to support babysitting them, but they just can't compare to paladins. Barbarians sadly lack the long term staying power to make them great, but rage of Krolm does at least make up for some of this. If barbarians were better at buying healing potions, I would have liked them a lot more.

 

[ronron2011]

why you dont have Majesty gold HD? :huh:

 

[AFnord]

why you dont have Majesty gold HD? :huh:

I bought the game almost on release (played the demo and was hooked), so I'm still using my original discs (I do by the way also have the separate disc version for the expansion, and not the more common Majesty Gold disc). I do plan to get the HD re-release at some point in a not too distant future, but right now that is an expensive that I have a hard time justifying.

 

[Spiderman]

AFNord: Your strategy is actually pretty similiar to what I said.

Spires of Death

Spoiler

You kept the hero count low and got good quality heros

Legendary Heros

Spoiler

You used Magic to kill the barrows all at once instead of heros. As a matter of fact, I may have misspoke and meant Lightning Bolt the Barrows because you do need the Wizard Towers to Farseer and reveal the map.

If you got the game on release, were you on the Cyberlore forums?

On some leves, some strategies are "forced" because of the building limitations you're given (such as starting or just being able to use Temples to Krypta on one of the Dragon levels). Then again, Skeletons are the best against Dragons so you should probably go that route anyway, even if the scenario was open.

I agree about the Order of Good being superior overall to the the Order of Chaos - mainly because of the cheaper Healing and Resurrection spells. For the NE scenarios, when I can, I tend to build a Krolm Temple, an Outpost, demolish Krolm and go Order of Good to take advantage of the Barb-Ranger follow and support. Priestesses and Skeletons tend to wander too much and the Skeletons tend to stray from the Priestess to protect them, so I would only use them against said Dragon scenarios when I had to. And the cheap Healing spells help protect the Barbs to make up for their not buying Potions

 

[AFnord]

Your strategy is actually pretty similiar to what I said.

Spires of Death

Spoiler

You kept the hero count low and got good quality heros

[/quote]

Spoiler

Yes, for the majority of the level, I followed that strategy. End-level was pure hero-spam though

If you got the game on release, were you on the Cyberlore forums?

Sadly not. I was not much of a forum socialite back then.

I agree about the Order of Good being superior overall to the the Order of Chaos - mainly because of the cheaper Healing and Resurrection spells. For the NE scenarios, when I can, I tend to build a Krolm Temple, an Outpost, demolish Krolm and go Order of Good to take advantage of the Barb-Ranger follow and support. Priestesses and Skeletons tend to wander too much and the Skeletons tend to stray from the Priestess to protect them, so I would only use them against said Dragon scenarios when I had to. And the cheap Healing spells help protect the Barbs to make up for their not buying Potions

That is an interesting strategy, I never thought about it. Now I'll have to try it out myself as soon as I have some time to spare.

And even if the price of the healing & resurrection spells were the same, the level 1 & 2 spells from the temple to Daurus are just too good to pass up on. The spells that the forces of discord have can really not compete with those two, in my opinion. Wither is quite useful, but as for the others, I rarely use them.

 

[unmerged(79717)]

I have the current record in Balance of Twilight and had posted a walk-through in the Cyberlore Forum about 10 years ago.
After all the years it's probably folly to duplicate that effort from memory, but I have a few hints.

Spoiler

The Mausoleum is way on the other side of the map (in the opposite corner from your starting settlement +/- about 25%). However the most direct path to it is full of potentially lethal distractions, so build a rogues guild and recruit a new rogue, then lead him around the relatively safe periphery of the map using a series of 100 GP scout flags (As I recall it took about 6-7 of them). After you find the building, You'll need a ton of gold (50K to be exact) to resurrect the sage, so you'll want to upgrade your market ASAP and construct a "Wall Street" formation of Inns. You'll also want elves when you upgrade the castle and any other gold generating buildings you care to add. Once you have the money raise the wizard and kill the phantoms. They are essentially immune to magic and cast two very lethal spells. I used Paladins and Monks because they have decent magic resistance, but I could see an argument for a RoKed Barbarian swarm.

 

[Hassat Hunter]

Dwarven ballista towers in their path... and dead Black Phantoms keep coming in.
So, I personally would prefer Dwarves over Elves, even if you need 50K gold.

 

[Spiderman]

And even if the price of the healing & resurrection spells were the same, the level 1 & 2 spells from the temple to Daurus are just too good to pass up on

I rarely use Dauros spells, simply because I don't really need to. Most heros can take care of themselves and if they truly are in trouble, a full Heal from Agrela is better than just buffing them (IMO).

Hassat: Well, that's the beauty of the scenario, you could go either way, depending on your goals. If you want to finish "quickly", then Elves would raise the money a lot faster. But if you don't care about time, either route works.

 

[Alfryd]

I suppose I could chip my thoughts for the Wrath of Krolm scenario. As far as I know, I'm still the only player to beat it without casualties.

Spoiler

This quest is a pain in the ass, largely because of the economic restrictions imposed on you (only a single level 2 marketplace and inn as reliably cash cows.)

Basically, my strategy is to rely largely on classes whose AI never triggers 'raiding lairs' behaviours, since demolishing Altars to Krolm summons His avatar, and you don't want that to happen more than once. Those are: healers, rogues, and adepts. I also get warriors initially, as Call to Arms allows you to recall them from premature raiding, and they're easily distracted by vice structures (which, in this case, is a good thing.)

To demolish the Altars themselves, I used a series of attack flags to bring their HP down to 25 or so, then used wizard towers with lightning bolt to finish the job, taking all the altars out at once. Therefore, the only really tough job here is surviving long enough to build up the cash reserves needed to extend the range of your wizard towers across the map and get a high-level guild.

 

[AFnord]

I rarely use Dauros spells, simply because I don't really need to. Most heros can take care of themselves and if they truly are in trouble, a full Heal from Agrela is better than just buffing them (IMO).

I find them to be a worthy investment most of the time. With them a relatively low leveled hero can go toe to toe with relatively powerful monsters, and they will require a lot less babysitting than if you were to rely just on healing.
Vigilance also has a nice speed buff, which is quite useful when a hero needs to chase down something/flee from something (a heal might make it turn and fight, which is not always ideal).

 

[Alfryd]

Speaking of which- I noticed you didn't use Wither much in that Deal with the Demon walkthrough? That's actually a great spell for cutting individual monsters down to size. Saved the skin of many a priestess, it did.

 

[unmerged(79717)]

I have an old no-hero solution to The Siege if anyI have an old no-hero solution to The Siege if anyone was interested.

Spoiler

You start with 4 heroes already on the map so you'll have to dismiss them, but before they leave the map, you'll need to upgrade the castle.
As you might have guessed, without heroes, you'll need ballista towers to keep Borjin at bay. You can't get towers until you build a Dwarven Settlement, and you can't do that until you have a 3rd level Blacksmith. Borjin's Elves and Warriors start showing up about Day 2 so your very first click (after the quest starts) is to research weapons and armor so you can start upgrading. While your research is going on and your peasants are building your second level castle, add arrows to all your guard towers (particularly the front three).
From this point on you'll want to keep your peasants busy so they don't disappear in the castle (it will take too much time for them to all get back on the map). So unless your blacksmith is ready for the first upgrade have them build something to keep them busy (I'd suggest an Inn because they are cheap, generate decent gold, and don't take too long to build). As soon as Blacksmith is ready to upgrade, click upgrade. As soon as it's upgraded, start researching for your last upgrade.
Now it's time to start positioning your peasants for the construction of the Dwarven Settlement. Upgrade the center front Guard Tower. At the same time build another Inn near your Blacksmith. This will keep one of your peasants close by to build the last upgrade to your blacksmith, and at the same time get peasants out to the front lines where the D-Day invasion is about to start. Keep your peasants concentrated at these two locations (Blacksmith and center front Guard Tower), building more Inns if needed. You'll also want to research veteran guards at the tower.
As soon as you can, upgrade the blacksmith to level three, then build a market just behind the center front guard tower. This should lock one to two peasants at that location while the blacksmith is upgraded.
The instant the upgrade is completed build your Dwarven Settlement in front of the center Guard tower, preferably as far forward as possible, but wherever you can if enemy heroes are already showing up. Now you just have to keep your peasant alive during the settlement's construction (cast Heal if necessary). Once your settlement is finished you can breath a sigh of relief. Nothing except a combination of Skeletons and Elves will be able to bring it down.
Use this time to start constructing ballista towers. Put one next to the two other front guard towers.
You'll be running low on cash soon so start building more Inns, trading posts, and upgrade your market. You'll want to have these buildings next to guard towers so your tax collectors can drop off ASAP. This might also be a good time to reset all your tax collectors to 0/0 so they don't wander around the map getting killed. Once the cash starts rolling in, your going to want to build an extra two Ballista towers, each about half way between your existing front guard towers.
At last your ready to go on the offensive.
Start by flanking your Dwarven settlement with Ballista towers. Then flank each of those towers with a tower. Whatever building Borjin flags, make sure it has at least one tower on each of its flanks.
When there is a break in the invasion and you have a free peasant or two you'll want to start advancing in to his territory.
First construct one ballista tower as far forward and to the right of the Dwarven Settlement as possible. Next do the same to the left side of the settlement. Finally put a Outpost directly in front of the settlement, then ring it with ballista towers. The Outpost will give two extra guards, tax collectors and, most importantly peasants, because by now your existing four peasants will be stretched pretty thin trying to put out fires all over the map.
Eventually the web of ballista towers will trap a hero 5th level or greater and kill him. Borjin will Reanimate him. Then your towers will kill him again. Then Borjin will Reanimate him again...
After a month or so of this, Borjin will run out of money and you'll win.

 

[Spiderman]

I find them to be a worthy investment most of the time. With them a relatively low leveled hero can go toe to toe with relatively powerful monsters, and they will require a lot less babysitting than if you were to rely just on healing.
Vigilance also has a nice speed buff, which is quite useful when a hero needs to chase down something/flee from something (a heal might make it turn and fight, which is not always ideal).

Like I said, most heros can take care of themselves, so watching one battle where this "low level hero" facing a "powerful monster" and jumping in to Heal isn't that big of a deal. Additionally, I usually would have a reward flag so this hero more than likely has help anyway.

Regarding vigilance, I probably would want the hero to fight the monster to gain XP and levels faster anyway.

The only time I might use such buffs is when they're facing a "boss".

 

[Alfryd]

I've personally found stoneskin/vigilance to be too expensive in terms of bang for buck, but Agrela's blessing can be very cost-effective thanks to how dodge/parry mechanics work (i.e, as percentile chance to resist physical attacks.) Various dauros/agrela associated heroes (plus adepts and gnomes,) can quickly achieve dodge/parry of 80 or more, so bumping that up by +15 means a 20% chance of taking damage is now a 5% chance of taking damage. In other words, it turns hard-to-hit heroes into nigh-invincible heroes. Very useful for babysitting young paladins and mid-level warriors, as you can often just buff them and move on, rather than having to hover anxiously, waiting to heal them.

And they say that math has no real-world applications.

Krypta/Fervus are rarely used in multiplayer, precisely because dodge/parry mechanics are broken that way. They are very useful in certain single-player quests, though. (Well, to be more accurate, Priestesses-plus-Wither are, since I've yet to find anything a level 7 Cultist can do that a level 1 Paladin can't do better with less cost investment. I rarely bother with Temples to Fervus at all.)

I have an old no-hero solution to The Siege if anyone was interested.

Shoot, I guess. Mass ballista towers, I presume?

 

[unmerged(79717)]

Shoot, I guess. Mass ballista towers, I presume?

Naturally.

I also agree with Blessing over Stoneskin for the simple reason that blessing effects both offense (H2H&Ranged) and defense (Dodge&Parry) at and only cost 50% as much.
About the only hero who can actually get more out of Stoneskin than Blessing is a low to mid-level wizard. A Wizard's dodge and parry are so pathetic that the +6 armor is the only thing that might work well enough against a physical attack that he can actually use his healing potions (and it stacks nicely with the +5 armor that Fire Shield provides).

 

[Alfryd]

I have an old no-hero solution to The Siege if anyone was interested.

I've used a similar strategy on the Urban Renewal quest, whenever space allowed me to squeeze ballista towers initially. Unfortunately, you don't always get time to complete the initial research/construction before the elves/rogues show hostility, and if you don't have any hero guilds by then, you're quite possibly screwed. (Damage to ANY of their buildings will count as a declaration of war, even if it's caused by, e.g, Ratapults emerging from a broken sewer main, rather than your own forces.)

 

[Hassat Hunter]

What?
I never encountered that, and I had ratmen kill their structures before declaring war... :/