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The only modicum of challenge was the last map because you start at war with 7 AIs that will spam out carpets of doom at around turn 35ish, but you also start out with 4 cities you don't have the money to fully develop, so you spend the first 15ish turns trying to get your economy going.
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Either way, the campaign wasn't as bad as I remembered it being, but it wasn't particularly good either. It's only when you stack defense items that heroes become almost unkillable.
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That's mostly due to me not exploring the maps fully because I couldn't let the AI boom too much and I wanted to win as fast as possible. Since I played it on hard, my heroes somehow didn't become freakishly overpowered. The dumbest thing is having to protect your heroes at all costs because if they die you lose immediately. I've always lost interest on the last map before, but the debacle that is AoE4 gave me enough motivation to get to the end. I just finished Sundren's campaign for the first time.
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