"Thank you for choosing to serve me. You will find I can be a very generous lord to vassals who remain faithful, which is more than I can say for the cowardly lords who refuse to take the oath from me. I am King! Not Roland. No one can stand before me and refuse to serve. Go! I have allocated a sum of gold for the purposes of making an example of the lords closest to my castle. Crush them, and report back to me by means of the magical amulet I have sent you."
—Archibald
First Blood is the first scenario of Archibald's campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars.
King Archibald requires you to defeat the three enemies in this region. They are not allied with one another, so they will spend most of their energy fighting amongst themselves. You will win when you own all of the enemy castles and there are no more heroes left to fight.OffBck
After Lord Ironfist's death, the royal seer was to decide which one of his sons, Archibald or Roland, was to inherit the throne, but Archibald had him killed, along with three of his successors, before accusing his brother of the murders. When Roland fled the castle, Archibald threatened the next seer into proclaiming him king.
As not every lord in the land pledged Archibald their allegiance, he sent his commander out to make an example of the closest ones, forcing them under his rule. He hoped that this would frighten the rest of them to follow.
Walkthrough[]
The commander starts with a single necromancer castle and hero. There are three opponents: an orange wizard, a green sorceress, and a yellow knight. All have a single castle and hero each, and start with very few creatures.
The enemies are located far to the east and south, and since they aren't allied with each other, they will spend a lot of time and resources fighting against each other before approaching Archibald's forces. By taking out one of the weaker castles, the commander can increase income and creature growth, eventually defeating all three opponents.