I don't know how things function for something like this on the site, so I figured I'd just post here. I'm probably not going to do the Northern Expansion mission until I feel I've got the Southern Missions all to reasonable times, but should they be added somewhere for the sake of having a place on the site?
There is also the Wrath of Krolm extra mission created by the devs, and the demo mission. Personally I don't think the demo mission needs to be included, but thought I would bring it up.
Here's my notes on the Northern Expansion
Rise of Ratmen - Rhoden will always spawn day 24, and the Waves are light enough that you can power economy your way to having tons of Lightning storm by that time. Pretty much exactly the same as The Fertile Plain.
Clash of Empires Valley of Serpents Darkness Falls Fortress of Ixmil All very similar to "Barbarian smash" Southern levels. Clash is the easiest, Serpents is annoying casually, but with Barbarians the map will be over before the crucial In-game-time when the Ice Dragons start spawning. Darkness Falls, very rarely trolls you... sometimes the bosses can somehow kill a Raged barbarian but usually it's a non-factor. Fortress is kinda the most interesting, but it's mostly a matter of the Fort just teleporting off the map, even though your barbarians only need about 35 seconds with it.
Scions of Chaos I went nuts to get the extra optimization to do this in 4 IGT days, but it's extremely reliable to get 5s over and over no matter what strategies you are using. Trade Routes 29 Caravans, 15 must arrive. The way the quest is written in documentation suggests that next-caravan resawn timer activates when previous is removed. My idea is To only Winged Feet 15, and to have Wizard towers at map edges to spawnkill the other 14. However, My efforts here have been wasted AND to add insult, there's actually a video of a IGT day 27 using the simple Winged Feet only method. Urban Renewal You can do an "ALL IN" strategy where you destroy the statues and then try to get the Red charathers to kill all their own buildings. I recommend Barbarians, Saving up money till you have 2 Rage of Krolm, then keeping one Barbarian to Stand over the statues without attacking via explore flags, and only then starting the carnage. ALL Barbarians will die but this is fine. Siege I have a very funny backdoor strategy, but I have better results playing semi-casually, favoring Solari > Barbarian. You need their Palace revealed, (babysit a rogue around edge of map so he approaches from behind) and want to kill their marketplace with 2 earthquakes (since the way their caravans transfer directly to his treasury instead of to the marketplace) Use Solari' Temple spell to prevent them from repairing the marketplace while earthquake recharges. Afterward, use it to kill their tax collectors (mostly they'll go for gazebo or fairgrounds). If you get a big endless fight going near their squishy priestess they can run themselves down pretty fast by spamming Resurrect and getting 1-hit again and again. Legendary Heroes Look it up on youtube to find someone using a wizard tower spam strategy. I feel like grinding out the money to do this is slow, so I think it's best to mix and go for 3 "hero" barrow kills and only 3 "lightning" barrow kills. Balance of Twilight Deal with a Demon 2.0, Just GRIND MONEY. Vigil A VERY short level if done correctly. Steps are > Minimize casualty during day 0 attack (monk, barbarian, rogue most important). > Find the Sorceror's Abode quickly > Exile spell the Rogue and he SHOULD be in the far row - go up and down this row to find the abomination > While recharging, Build an INN and a Guardhouse by your castle (inside towards the middle) > Use Exile spell on Abomination (Unlike with Heroes it's only 1 in 4, it can go to any of the cardinal direction map edges) > Abomination should appear on top of your palace and get perma-aggroed on the Guard Tower > When it fears an important hero, let them enter the Inn, then delete it while they are inside for a "budget change of heart". Remember Monk/Barbaian are the DPS. Spires of Doom I'd go over the word limit describing how to do this fast. Wrath of Krolm Haven't tested it heavily, but you can physically wall the Avatar in with your heroes in certain situations. I'm not sure if it's better to Try to stall him during this and snipe all the temples while he's inactive or send in wizards (since most of your heroes will be unable to attack themselves) Vampiric Revenge Killing 2 vampires is kinda funny, since it's a "micromanagement experiment" Wizard's and timing invisbility so they don't throw up their shield is the way to go, and while it's easy to do during practice, revisting this level without a marketplacemakes it more interesting when you push the duration of each spell to the limit.
MY TLDR - I think NE is less interesting to speedrun since 8! levels are boring. 2 of these include the most RNG levels in the game (IXMIL's long teleport vs short teleport thing and Trade Caravan pathfinding around trees). The 5 Interesting ones (Legendary Heroes,Spires of Doom, Vigil for Fallen Hero, Siege, and Urban Renewal) Include 2 Humorous levels, 2 levels that are Hard on the nerves since they are intended to be endurance levels casually, and Siege, well I guess I do like Siege.
If you are going to be online anyway to add the full game run, I guess I could ask you to add the Northern Expansion levels - real sorry I didn't ask you to do this a month ago, because it'll feel like I'm swamping you if I send in 10 videos all at once.
