You only have 2 towns, while the 5 evil civilizations each has more than 10 hives (The undead has 30!). Your research, therefore, is going to be much slower than them. Hence, although both you and the evils can only build basic units now, in a few turns, the evils will be able to build very strong units and start to attack you.

What you have now are:

1. good defense positions (fortress) beside most dungeon entrances
2. a wonder almost built (gives two free advances)
3. communism government with no happiness problem in the near future (on deity level, the first unhappy citizen appears after size 5 even without martial law)
4. 3 HEROES at present, more will join you later (a total of 15 hero units may fight for you).

Your best bet of winning is for the AI civs to slow down their research, so your heroes can destroy most of their cities before they can do you any harm. Theoretically the AI civs will mimic your tax rate, so all you need to do is to set your science rate low. On turn 1, set science to 10%, and starting from turn 2, set science rate to zero until you see all AI civs’ strongest units appear. Once your cities grow to size 5, hire scientists to get your advances (let’s hope that the evil civs know nothing about it). However, once you find that all enemy civs have already produced their strongest units, then turn full gear to science (80% science rate) to crunch out new techs.

You need your heroes not only strong, but also fast, so they can quickly go deep into the dungeon to destroy enemy hives. Hence, your research path should be: Plea for Aid, Elven Alliance, to get two fast heroes. Plea for Aid will be given by the wonder. If you hire 4 scientists after Beckhorn reaches size 5 (wait for two turns to accrue food, each turn food deficit is only 1 so you’ll have plenty of turns before food is exhausted), you’ll be able to get Elven Alliance in around 20 turns.

Enemy bosses are tough to kill, so you need a super strong unit to do the job. So after getting elven alliance, your research target should be: Smugglers, Thieves’ Guild, to get your killer unit.

Your heroes need to be protected, so your next research target should be Magic, Spells: Magic Eye, to get magic eye (bomber) units hovering over your heroes thus nobody can attack them.

Afterwards, go for the tech which can give you the lightening spell (missile) unit, for better attacking (but you can win without it). Do not research the firestorm spell, which is a lot more expensive but less effective than the lightening. Lightening spells may get handy when killing the Orc boss, the Frost Giantess. A drawback for the spell units is that you can’t make them veteran.

You can try to build more cities and improve your land, but winning without doing it will be more fun.

There are 6 dungeon entrances around Beckhorn. The one Due West of you has a city owned by the ‘SPECIAL’ civ. Do not destroy or occupy the city; whenever you have a new non-vet hero you can send him/her there to get veteran status.

The following chapters detail the tactics to destroy each evil civs. Although I wrote it in the sequence of their destruction, the player should execute the tactics simultaneously. Also, once your heroes (except Zjorz th’Knife) see the strongest enemy unit appears, retreat them to the entrance of the dungeon and set up your defense. You’ll attack later with Zjorz.

It is very important to have your heroes rested (sentry) and recovered to full strength once their moving points drops (by at least 1) due to battle damage. Your heroes will live longer if you let them rest.

Horror has a Phase Insect (helicopter) unit at the beginning, which possess threat to your weakly defended towns. Its boss unit (the Dark Warrior) is weak. However once it gains the 4^th tech, it can produce a very strong attacking unit (Green Slime, a/d/m/h/f=4/1/2/1/12), and if it can get the 5^th tech, it can produce Hive Horror (a/d/m/h/f=6/6/1/3/2).

Jahdam is the heroine for the job. She is fast (2x4 move), and has a strong attack (second best attacking unit among heroes, ignore city walls). Let her enter the Southwest dungeon entrance and start killing.

Later, after you discover Elven Alliance, Egri Deltan will join Jahdam to finish the Horrors. Egri is also very fast and strong in attack. They must be fast, better destroy the Horror before it can produce Green Slime.

There is a single Horror city inside the Due East dungeon entrance. Redwind should be able to explorer that dungeon, kill the two spiders, and destroy the city.

Once the Horror is destroyed your town will be safe if you can secure the 3 fortresses beside the dungeon entrances.

Undead has 30 cities so very quickly it will be able to produce its strongest units (Blade wraith, a/d/m/h/f=5/4/4/2/8). Its boss unit, Lich, is quite tough. At the beginning, send Judge Roland to the Northwest dungeon to destroy several undead cities. He should go west and destroy all cities in that part. Afterwards, have him retreat to the dungeon entrance and put him in the fortress for defense. Judge Roland is fast (3x4 move), but he is not very good in attack. Have him retreat once he meets blade wrath.

After you discover Thieves’ Guild, your killer unit Zjorz th’Knife (a/d/m/h/f=5/4/4/3/30) can go into the dungeon to kill off the Undead. By then Jahdam, Egri, and Thurin should have finished their jobs so you can send them (along with Judge Roland) to support Zjorz. Most Undead units have moves 1 or 2 (the Skeleton Lord has move 3 but it is weak) so you should be able to anticipate where to meet them. Only Zjorz can kill the boss (Lich), so put him in front of other people.

Killing Lich will give you a tech.

Demon is deep inside the Southeast dungeon, behind the Monsters. It has a very strong boss. Its units are fast but weak. The strongest unit is Daemon (a/d/m/h/f=6/5/6/3/1). Send Thurin the Elf to destroy most of its cities. Thurin is fast (4x4 move, ignore ZOC), and strong in attack. He will be able to destroy most Monster cities then most Demon cities before long. Do not rescue the Captive, the Damsel, or attack any cities of the SPECIAL (post pone those events so your research won’t be slowed down), save them for a later time. Thurin’s top priority is to attack the Monster and Demon cities. If possible, circumvent enemy units and attack cities only.

The innermost part of the Demon empire has a ring of dungeon floor. Do not enter the center of the ring, since the Demon boss, Lord of Evil, is resting there. Thurin’s can destroy all other cities, but he must leave this one till Zjorz finished the Undead. It will be a piece of cake for Zjorz to kill the Lord of Evil.

Put Redwind on the fortress next to the Southeast dungeon entrance for defense (after he destroyed the Horror city in the Due East dungeon) until both Demon and Monster are destroyed.

Monster has a dragon, which is the strongest boss of all evil civs. Its dark wolf is pretty fast (a/d/m/h/f=5/1/3x4/1/2). Thurin should be able to destroy all of its cities except one at the beginning. Since Thurin will not attack any SPECIAL cities, he will not be able to encounter the dragon on the other side of a SPECIAL city.

Thurin actually can finish the Monster civ all by himself. He can attack the city which hosts the Dragon (dragon almost always stay out of the city), thus the dragon will be disbanded. But I prefer to kill the dragon directly (will give you a tech for a wonder). By the time Zjorz kills the Lord of Evil, you should be able to build the magic eyes. Now put an eye on top of Zjorz and move him towards the Dragon. As long as he’s a vet and he attacks, Zjorz can slay the dragon. However if the dragon attacks first Zjorz may get killed. So don’t forget to have a magic eye on top of Zjorz (only bat swarm can attack it but it is too weak to even scratch Zjorz).

Orc has a tough boss (the Frost Giantess) and its strongest unit (Hill Giant, a/d/m/h/f=6/6/1/6/3) is the toughest among all evil civs. The Orc was given two Hill Giants at the start (that is, 3 tough units at the beginning), so it is nearly impossible to destroy more than half of its cities before it gets to build Hill Giants. However all Orc units move very slowly, so you don’t need to worry about defense from them for the first several turns. (An exception is the Orc boss, however it’s very unlikely the AI will decided to use it to attack you early in the game).

After you discovered Elven Alliance, Egri Deltan will join you. Before sending her to help Jahdam (see the ‘Undead’ chapter), first send her to the Northeast dungeon to kill some Orcs. Do not let her enter too deep into the dungeon, cause she has another job. By turn 42 you’ll get Brother Sven (vet, strong in defense). Immediately put him in the fortress next to the Northeast dungeon. Nobody can pass him from there.