I owned this shortly after I bought Dungeon Keeper 2 in the early 2000s, and so I know something is not right.

Dungeon Keeper Gold mission 18 is NOT adjusting the Enemy Hero Levels as it should be.

You're supposed to bum rush the opponents, even the old walkthroughs from 1997 are still found online and they say that is the strategy.

Try to do that here and the heroes for the Light Side are already levels 7, 8 and 9.

At the 2 hour mark, you get wiped out with multiple waves.

At one point after I wiped out the first wave when I slammed hard into the enemy, a second wave of identical heroes all level 8 spawned. The game KEPT spawning the same wave until I died.

Something is wrong here, and I don't know what.

A quick search indicates the game is working, there are just a silly number of high level heroes that show up on this map.

I turtle up with a giant workshop. You can create some supremely lengthy horizontal corridors along the north edge of your starting area where the undiggable rock squeezes in slightly, then have your imps fortify that wall section. After that, giant workshop creates doors and traps that can roll over any and every attacking party if your creatures get overwhelmed once you attack. In the meantime, you've got large expanses for giant rooms of anything that matters, like lairs for all the available creatures, hatcheries to feed them, and training room to level them (once you have a door to lock it).