Explore Flag Guide

To view the map generation > Open RGS and load the original maps (Majesty HD > Quest (or Questmx) folder choose the Q folder) 

Buildings assigned to multiple spaces will choose 1 of them. 
Keep in mind that Map Rotation Still takes place after map generation.
Unit Forces lets you see the subset -  but generally since important buildings are almost always centered - you will never need more than 24 flags on the "axis points"  even on the most extremely randomized levels (Brashnard's Sphere and Legendary Heroes) 

Here is a Page where I've cut-out all the "unimportant lairs" - Note that things like creature dens and extra Daemonwood groves CAN still interfere by making Heroes flee in terror.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Z4OfnAbECwIY__PBjGo4Te2gGhHzIi69ykH6p6_MdE/edit?usp=sharing

Buildings assigned to the sides of the map are actually just far enough off the edge that a Rogue/Ranger viewrange will miss them if you put the flags literally on the edge of the screen. 

Heroes implicitly "know" which flags other heroes are going for and will NOT compete  over explore flags (only attack flags can have multiple heroes go for it) On many no-economy maps you might only want to recruit the first 2 of 4 rogues to prevent "giving up" because of the 2nd rogue going for the 2nd flag in the breadcrump before the 1st rogue reaches the first, causing the 1st one to return home rather than go for the 3rd flag.

On a Large size map 
Lvl 1 Rogues will travel 3/5 map distance for 100 gold flags.
Rogues will ask for more gold for the same distance if they level up.
Barbarians/Warriors will travel 1/5 map distance for 200 gold flags.
Healers/Solari/Rangers will travel 1/5 map distance for 400 gold flag

Special exploration circumstances
Rangers no flag - on "small" sized maps their default behavior is fine, due to their higher view range.
Barbarians - on maps with wild skeletons (or silly stuff) that cannot be explored due to flee in terror. 
Healers - on Vengeance of Lich Queen - may die on the way, but you should still have a straight line and tell where Lich castle is based on what side the 3 vampire group appears from. 
Ranger - on Tomb of The Dragon King - steering them lets you find the Krolm temples before the first dragon spawns, and likely fixes their aggro to it for rest of map.
Solari - on Slay The Mighty Dragon - 400 per flag is only truly needed if you want to get 1 solari out DURING the day 0 Vendrall attack. If you aren't going all out you can let their AI cycle a few times and they'll take smaller things. 
Warriors - on Dark Forest - I actually use 100 flags rather than 200, but their AI bumps up due to "lack of things to do" 
Wizard Towers - On Rescue Prince and Legendary Heroes 

If heros "grazed" something you think is important - put down a guard tower foundation - it has the highest view range of all buildings, and you can manually demolish it to keep cost down / prevent attracting peasants.

The Heroes and Spells in a Speedrun

1: Rogue - almost every level. Good Exploration. Very Willing to Fight buildings but not monsters.

2: Barbarian - There are many "no economy levels" where you can win solely with the starting gold, but if you CAN't The Barbarian is almost what ends up happening.  Used in nearly half the levels of the speedrun. One of the few weaknesses of the Barbarian is the Daemonwood, since the Lvl 1 Barbarian should not be used against them.

3: Gnome - Invaluable for building.  The Build AI has some special feautures - The gnome will usually not perform the "check nearby" while their current activity is building (both pathfinding toward a building and actually building), This means that they can run into places that would cause other heroes to flee in terror (picking up quest Artifacts if heroes died from whatever came out of the building). Another REALLY important feature of gnomes is "remote building" Gnomes are usually willing to go 3/5 of a Large size map (from the hovel), allowing you to place Guilds in positions that Peasants just can't handle (or would take minutes to get too)

4: Wizard - Can do incredible damage to buildings, and probably the reason that 3/4 of the bosses have near-perfect magic immunity. However, he's a massive money sink, and you generally only want 1-2 of them. I feel he's essential for Daemonwood levels, and the few  bosses that DON"T have high magic resistance. 

5: Warrior - If a level forbids building temples, he is important to muscle down mid-level enemies (medusa/werewolf). Important in some beginner quests.

6: Priestess - Their main selling point are the 3 skeletons, which usually tank and slowly kill Dragons since Firebreath is counted as a Ranged attack. Withering the Dragon makes it even more inaccurate and less dodgy against the skeleton. Better still is if the Priestess herseolf aggros (own temple in range auto berserk) while the dragon is already aggroed to a skeleton. Letting multiple Dragon's attack a skeleton gives them more oppurunities to "get lucky" so the increased DPS per tank is worth the time it takes to position the Guild.  Skeletons can beat many monster types they normally couldn't provided the monster is withered - This includes Minotaurs, Werewolves, and Vampires (will need to wither before they aggro though).

7: Ranger - They waste time filling out blank space that you don't need, but can be helpful. Will fight most low-level monsters, and some mid-level monsters instead of fleeing where Rogues would. If their Guild is moved on-top of a monster lair, they will go for it even at only 100 gold. (and inherit auto-berserk behaviour- see fake-spells section below) They outrange the Black Phantom AOE if the Black Phantom is guaranteed to be aggored to another Target (I like to double guild them for Day of Reckoning since they seem to always go for the free lvl 50 Warrior) . 

8: Warrior of Discord - They actually do much more damage to buildings than Paladins do. They have badish survivability, but with help from  wither spell or heal spell, they BEAT Solari level (no one's getting to Krolm Barbarian level). I use them to Sorceror's Abode Gate Bomb in the Northern Expansion because Call to Arms lets them be-reused. You have to be careful with their AI - they will respond to Temple to Fervus being attacked over more important activities (Scions of Chaos).

9: Monk - Temple to Daurous is a tech building for Paladins, and shouldn't be used to actually build monks. Technically have a high-proc critical strike at lvl 7, but their unuseful AI and low speed , and the ffact that they lose to many mid-level monsters (werewolves/medusa/minotaur) at exploration levels makes them bad. Critical Strike seems to be 100% accurate (when it procs) with a D&D ish saving throw of "resist and take half damage" which is still in the 200 range  against Bosses and Yetis. Remember them for levels with the High level hero modifier or "rescuable heroes" Because of the way their decision Tree works, if you build a single Inn, the Monk will camp that location REALLY hard in preference to most other activities. 

10: Everyone else
Solari - Once at Lvl 4-5 can beat mid-level monsters indefinitely, but a raw lvl 1 solari does not want to fight werewolf/minotaur. Paladin - A super unit.  Rarely used because Barbarian's cost less  (esp building) and have higher Greed. Dwarf, despite the 70% magic resist, they cannot fight Vampire/Evil Occulus/Black Phatnom without gaining a few levels. The greed is good, but generally you should only think of them in terms of giving you Ballista access. Elf - It's not bad, but you should be using him when you need to chain multbile expensive spells together (usually rage of krolm, lighting storm for Fertile Plain/Rise of Ratmen)  Adept - The Adept in Slay The Mighty Dragon will deal much more "last ditch damage" if he purchases poison from an upgraded rogue guild. The level is short enough to restart if the wizard's let you down though. Cultist -Healer - There are two levels where you start with a temple to Agrela despite having a lvl 1 palace. (Vengeance of Lich Queen, Valley of Serpents) Both times, you can recruit them to maximum, upgrade palace, and then demolish their guild and build a temple to the one true god on the rubble. KROLM Lives.

Wizard Guild
Farseeing - Exploring with this is so-so, refer to the "fake spell" section down below.
Invisibility - The Wizard babysitting spell. Costly, but worth it against Daemonwood. Vrendal's AOE boss attack can be dodged using invisibilty since the damage tick is about 2 seconds after the initial animation
Lighting Bolt - Can be used to kill monster lairs  (Legendary Heroes ). More commonly ,you can use it to force a hero to Berserk if it is inside a guild and sees a monster in the immediate area outside - Wizards's themselves are the prime canidate.
Magic Shield - Probbably only used against the Black Phantoms on Day of Reckoning.
Lighting Storm - Used on Quest for the Crown, Rise of Ratmen, Fertile Plain - otherwise the combined cost of this single spell and upgrading the wizard guild is probably outweighed by Barbarians, etc.
Supercharge - Very Rare use cases, probably The final wave of Fertile Plain.

Heal - 
Will act as a "budget change of heart" in some situations. Some levels give you high level heroes from Rescued buildings, and they are worth saving in most cases.
Wither - 
A very powerful debuff - It's more cost efficient to kill a withered Dragon with lvl 1 barbarians  than to Rage of Krolm in the rare circumstance of having both temples. 
Stoneskin - I don't understand how Armor works entirely, but it will push the rescued Paladins in Quest for Chalice just enough to be able to kill The boss reliably.
Winged Feet - Usable when you have a temple to Lunord Pre-built and NE levels (Trade Routes, Balance of Twilight)
Sunstrike - The damage range is tragic. Use to protect Solari in Slay The Mighty Dragon, and a lot in The Siege.

Lvl 2 Lvl 3 Temple Spells
Do Not Exist

Building Spells
Extort - far too valuable to describe.
Rage of Krolm - requires 2 marketplaces + elves to support, but all powerful. The Defensive part of the Buff is in many ways more important than the speed and attack. Allows Barbarians to act as explorers in maps with lots of skeletons or mid-level  that would stop ranger/rogues, and to survive most bosses / high level enemies.
Call to Arms - use in combination with gnome "remote building" and "heroes always berserk if monsters nearby when first exiting guild"  (Quest for Chalice) 
Move Camp - If the guild is right on top of a monster lair, Rangers will attack it even at 100 gold. Like all heros , they will auto-berserk if something is in "check nearby range" right after exiting their home guild, letting you throw it at a boss fight even with lvl 1 rangers if you want.
Enchant Tower - wizard tower's have equal range with Dragon's which is situationally important. Remember that the Wizard Guild MUST be lvl 2 to enchant them. Their HP lets them outtrade most monsters 1 on 1 minotaurs 1 on 2, and most monsters even better.   The wizard tower formation I use in  Slay The Mighty Dragon usually deals only 150 of his HP - I plan for the Wizard himself to deal 350.  They can do a higher proportion of his HP if he fights them all at once rather than his normal killing 2 outer > killing 2 inner but that is mostly down to luck. if you aggro monsters to the wizard tower, heroes will still react to them with "check nearby" BUT, you can make the monster invisble and it will REMAIN aggrod to the tower (even though the tower stops shooting, and the hero (pref wizard) can start attacking a building (at which point he will aggro the building even after the monster re-appears, skipping the fear check.

Sorceror's Abode
Change of Heart - The best spell in the game.
Frost Field - If two heroes are attacking a building and you put this on one of them, then monsters will not be able to "interrupt" the other hero off of the building. Think of it as a Taunt Spell.
Chain Lighting - No reason to ever be used.
Earthquake - Most quests are won through building destruction, so it's valuable.
Gate  -  Useful in the slower NE levels, but the fast ones still prefer Barbarians.
Dismissal - Only used in Vigil For a Fallen Hero.

Fake Spells
The Guardhouse has the highest sight range of all buildings - if your hero "grazed" an area that you know is important, it can provide an instant "farsight". Manually Deleting the Guardhouse by selecting It and using X > Y will keep the cost at minimum if you end up needing to do this multiple times.
If you dismiss a Hero by selecting it and clicking the X in the top left (or using the X > Y keyboard combo) it will attempt to reach the front of your Palace to Leave Ardania. It can still berserk (Slay the Mighty Dragon if he attacks the Palace first)
If you delete a Hero's Guild while an empty guild of the same type exists they are instantly assigned to the other guild.  Useful with Warrior's Guild  Call to arms in (Quest for Chalice).
If you delete a Hero's Guild while no empty guild's exists, he will enter sulking behavior - They will try to enter an Inn. As the player you can ensure there is only 1 Inn and use this for Hero movement in rare cases. Sulking Heroes can be forced to Berserk in unusual areas, but will never attack buildings. If there is no inn they will Leave Ardania as described above.
An event  Hero who has no guild will never leave normally, but if he inherits a guild later, he WILL leave when it dies (Vigil for a Fallen Hero, better NOT to find the outposts)
If a Hero exits its Home Guild and sees a monster within it's starting Radius, it will be forced to Berserk no matter what. This includes due to the Guild taking damage (see Lighting Bolt)
Newly recruited Gnomes will check the  Peasant decision tree as their very first action before the Hero decision tree. Once they've started a hero activity they must consult the decision tree before being open to "building" again. Put the Foundation down THEN recruit. DO NOT Recruit first. 
If a Hero flees In Terror to an Inn, and you manually delete the Inn, they will re-roll the Fear check
Buildings will remove scenery such as trees, which can improve pathfinding if you immediately delete the building. (Trade Routes)

Reward Flag - 
Most Non Greedy Heroes will need 400 on at 1/5  Large map distance to override other things on their decision tree. Use for - Pre-built ranger / solari exploration.
Breadcrumbed flags can allow you to "steer" around known obstacles (Daemonwood spawn on direct route to necessary to check corner) They can also save total gold over a single big flag. 
Never go above 800 for Any Reason.

Nome	Autore
Explore Flag Guide	Reality 5 years ago
The Heroes and Spells in a Speedrun	Reality 5 years ago