https://wiki.wesnoth.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Mal+Shubertal&feedformat=atomThe Battle for Wesnoth Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T15:10:08ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.31.16https://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheEasternInvasion&diff=70481TheEasternInvasion2023-02-01T03:48:37Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Northern Outpost */</p>
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<div>:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''<br />
<br />
<br />
In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sargeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.<br />
<br />
As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign, since it contains quite a few surprises along the way, and at some points you will have to make choices that will have important repercussions for later scenarios. You may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios ''Captured'', ''Evacuation'' and ''Weldyn Under Attack'' in order to plan ahead.<br />
<br />
You will encounter different types of enemies, mostly undead units (especially towards the beginning and the end of the campaign), as well as orcs and trolls. Mages and Heavy Infantrymen will provide the backbone of your army. You'll probably want to level up at least one extra Mage of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages and Iron Maulers. You can also recruit Spearman, Cavalryman and Horseman units (the latter a few scenarios into the campaign), but their importance is perhaps less pronounced in many of the scenarios.<br />
<br />
You will encounter a few tough challenges along the way, so be prepared, and be careful assigning experience to your units, especially during the first few scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== The Outpost ===<br />
<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. All will produce skeletons and skeleton archers, but in addition the northernmost enemy will recruit walking corpses, the middle one will recruit bats, and the southern one will recruit bone shooters and revenants. <br />
<br />
On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead. On turn 10 (easy) or 12 (hard) Dacyn returns and points out a trap door to exit the level. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16). All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost and suddenly recruit a surge of new units the turn after Dacyn returns.<br />
<br />
There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 90% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks allow them to do great damage against skeletons, skeleton archers, revenants, and bone shooters, which will be the vast majority of your opponents' forces, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. They are even decent against bats, as they can usually kill them in a single strike and therefore nullify the effectiveness of their drain attacks. Walking corpses will give them a little trouble, but the northern leader usually doesn't recruit enough of them to be a major problem. <br />
<br />
Defensive approach #1: <br />
The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage. Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the Northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.<br />
<br />
Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.<br />
<br />
Defensive approach #2: <br />
The goal is to fall back and defend the Western bank of the river up through turn 9, then counterattack across the bridge on turns 10-11 so Gweddry is in position to immediately exit on turn 12. Recruit 4 HI and 2 magi on turn one, then keep recruiting more HI as often as you can up through turn 5. Use the magi and Dacyn to hold the central villages from bats while Gweddry recruits and your HI take up their positions on the far river bank. As darkness falls, you should abandon the villages and get your final units across the river as well. Most of the undead won't be able to reach your positions until dawn, when you'll have the advantage of daylight to slaughter anything crossing the river. This should destroy most of the first wave. By dusk, start preparing your forces to mass on the bridge, where they want to punch through any undead stragglers and reoccupy your keep on turn 11 for a final last stand. As soon as Dacyn reappears on turn 12, get Gweddry to the trap door before your survivors are overwhelmed.<br />
<br />
Offensive approach: <br />
recruit 6 HI and send them and Dacyn straight for the middle leader. Recruit another HI the following turn and send it after them. Your goal is to completely eliminate the central leader's forces before reinforcements can arrive, and then take him out by turn 6-7 to stop his recruitment. One big advantage of this is that he is the only leader who recruits bats, so once you take him out you don't have to worry about any more bats harassing your wounded and stealing your villages.<br />
<br />
After your 7 initial HI are on their way, keep Gweddry in the keep to recruit 2-3 additional HI who will defend the southwest villages against the eventual arrival of the southern leader's forces. Steal a kill with Gweddry when the opportunity presents itself. <br />
<br />
Then recruit what you want, ideally at least 1 more mage to start feeding xp to become another healer. Keep in mind that there's no early finish bonus, and with this strategy you should hold on to a lot of villages, so delay going for the trap door as long as possible to hoard gold and farm xp. <br />
<br />
The victory conditions include killing all enemy leaders, but this seems nearly impossible on the highest difficulty. If anyone has managed it, feel free to explain how you did it!<br />
<br />
=== Escape Tunnel ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Permanent holy amulet in the North.<br />
** Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast<br />
<br />
This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.<br />
<br />
Take some time to choose your supporting units, depending on which ones you want to level up the quickest. Heavy Infantry are excellent frontline units, but the downside is that they move very slowly in caves. However, since Gweddry is the only unit that ''has'' to get quickly to the far West, this might not be a big problem. You can also go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. One keep of units in total should easily be enough—there's also a convenient keep with one castle tile to recruit additional units in the middle of the map, in case you need it during the battle. You can save time by recruiting your faster units at your starting keep and your HI at the central keep, so they don't have to walk down the long tunnel to the front line. <br />
<br />
The map is quite small. A little East from your keep the path is forked into three directions: North is a small area with a holy amulet, East is the troll keep and South is the dwarven keep. These two last paths will merge again to the East, leading to the exit, where Gweddry needs to go. The dwarves are friendly and will help you fight your enemies. The trolls and undead are hostile to each other as well as to you and the dwarves. <br />
<br />
The holy amulet to the North is a very useful item, which will make all the attacks (melee and ranged) of the unit that picks it up of type ''arcane''—and, unlike in other campaigns, this holy amulet is permanent! Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the scenario ''The Crossing'', where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.<br />
<br />
Both your challenges and your tools in this scenario are bottlenecks. Troll whelps will clog up the narrow tunnel to your east, and the undead horde will try to flow through the narrow tunnel to your west. <br />
<br />
The simplest way through this scenario is through pure cowardice. Recruit 1-2 spearmen at your starting keep and run Gweddry straight for the amulet. Have Dacyn and the spearmen passively block the trolls in their eastern tunnel until Gweddry has the amulet, then pull everyone south into the dwarven section of the tunnels, leaving the dwarves to face the trolls alone. Leave one spearman at the village at 18.11 to block any undead who are following, and have the rest of your forces head east. Have Dacyn or another spearman grab the treasure at 35.8, while Gweddry follows the tunnel to the exit at 37.5. The advantage of this strategy is a big gold carryover due to spending almost none of your starting gold AND getting a big early finish bonus. The disadvantage is you will gain almost no xp, and if the undead get lucky and take out the troll leader VERY quickly, you might get stuck if some wraiths get into the eastern end of the tunnels before you. <br />
<br />
If you want to get more xp out of this scenario, you can either block the undead or outrun them, while you take on the trolls head on. To out-run them, you will need to break through the bottleneck of troll whelps by brute force. This will require some lvl 2 units from last scenario, ideally fearless shocktroopers and/or red mages. lvl 1 units alone will simply not be able to deal enough reliable damage each turn to kill all the whelps in the narrow tunnel before the undead catch up. Focus on doing as much damage as possible to the trolls each turn and finishing them off as quickly as possible to get around their regeneration. Once you break through the troll blockade, run for it, killing the troll leader in passing. This is easy because he is totally passive and will not attack you. Send a quick unit to grab the chest while gweddry heads for the door. <br />
<br />
If you don't have enough high damage-dealers to break through the trolls quickly enough, you can block the undead to buy more time. Leaving a sacrificial spearman/HI on the village at 7.7 can buy you an extra 1-2 turns by itself if it gets lucky. You can also establish a defensive line anchored by the hills at 12.5 and the one castle tile of the central keep. Good use of healers and rotating wounded units, along with playing relatively passively (i.e. not attacking so you won't take any retaliation damage), can allow 4-5 spearmen/HI to hold that line for a very long time while the rest of your forces cooperate with the dwarves to get through the trolls.<br />
<br />
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.<br />
<br />
In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West (Mal-Skraat) will take you to the ''Elven Alliance'' scenario, while the one to the West (Mal-Kallat) takes you to ''The Undead Border Patrol''.<br />
<br />
Going East is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a loyal Paladin and several Knights.<br />
<br />
Firstly, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep: either shoot him with Dacyn's ranged and Gweddry's melee attacks for a 1-turn kill, or attack using melee only to wound him (Dacyn is likelier to emerge less wounded this way). If you don't kill him the first turn, Mal-Tar recruits 3 soulless then retreats to the nearby village to heal. But that gives you more easy xp to farm... so food for thought. <br />
<br />
You will be fighting a mix of skeletons & skeleton archers, along with skeleton riders and soulless (in the West) and vampire bats and ghouls (in the East). So recruiting Heavy Infantry and Magi work well (and recall whomever you gave the amulet to in the previous scenario), plus a single spearman or cavalry to grab villages and/or act as expendable blocker if you can't afford a last HI/mage. Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village to heal ASAP, as he will be the core mobile healer of your army unless you have another white mage. <br />
<br />
Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups. <br />
<br />
On easy or medium difficulty the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units with Dacyn positioned at the epicenter of your assault so he can heal the wounded. <br />
<br />
It's a good idea to pick which leader you're going to kill and move all your forces in that direction asap. You won't be able to completely outrun the skeleton riders from the west or the bats from the east, but if you move quickly you should be able to take out most of one opponent's forces before the others catch up to you.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Elven Alliance ====<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear near the elf leader on turn 6.<br />
<br />
Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.<br />
<br />
Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.<br />
<br />
There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.<br />
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.<br />
<br />
Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.<br />
<br />
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/23/22.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. There is a Dark Sorcerer in the Northwest corner and a Lich in the Southeast corner. Defeating the Lich (Mal-Telnarad) will give you the chance to go to ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging but rewarding scenario, while defeating the sorcerer (Mal-Skraat) is easier, and takes you directly to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The terrain is more open and the necromancer has less gold to recruit with than the lich. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance—you may recruit a couple of suicide cavalrymen to distract bats and grab distant towns. One might even get enough XP this way to be worth recalling in later scenarios. Because of the open terrain, it is recommended to use mostly heavy infantry and your holy amulet unit on this level backed up by a few magi. As in most scenarios against undead, white magi are very useful for their arcane attack as well as mobile healers. Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand; this gives you a significant advantage.<br />
<br />
If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp, but the lich can be drawn out of his fortress to fight in the swamp as soon as you come within range. Gweddry can lure enemy units into chasing him by moving Southwest into the mountains, thereby diverting many undead from contesting the river crossing. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process, though alternatively Gweddry can lure these too. You can also win by just rushing all of your units across the river asap, as it only then takes one or two to defend the river crossing against any undead following you. Keep in mind that the bridges in the swamp count as flat ground, so they will be key highways for your HI. <br />
<br />
Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.<br />
<br />
==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario. <br />
<br />
Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
The main reason to get here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and five Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first), but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.<br />
<br />
The regular Time of Day cycle does not apply here. Instead, dusk and night are twice as long as usual. The large accumulating mob of undead will mull around in the center until turn 7 or so before swarming in Gweddry's general direction. Prior to that you can 'pull' the mob North or South by relocating Gweddry or alternatively by moving decoy units closer to the center, so adjust your tactics accordingly. Most importantly, try to finish the mission quickly.<br />
<br />
''On easy'': This is still a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in position to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] My take on just getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East (and center). Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6 [?in which version?]. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.<br />
<br />
=== The Northern Outpost ===<br />
* '''Objectives''':<br />
** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.<br />
** Defeat the undead leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.<br />
** Horseman units can now be recruited.<br />
** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.<br />
<br />
This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.<br />
<br />
Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each.<br />
<br />
This scenario has no early finish bonus, but 70% gold carryover. The scenario only ends once you have killed BOTH the bandit AND undead leader. This means that, in order to maximize your carryover to the next scenario, it is in your best interest to flag all of the villages (killing the bandit leader in the process) and then wait until the last turn to kill the undead leader, while stockpiling as much gold as you can. He has a significant passive income, so he will produce ~1 unit per turn even with no villages, which you can use to feed xp to your units while you wait. <br />
<br />
The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn will be busy with his special spell to reveal the outlaws for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the Southeast. A few HI type units can help as well, but don't over-recruit as this enemy is fairly weak and you want to minimize upkeep. <br />
<br />
You should also send a cavalryman/horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the Southwest. If you give the amulet to a knight from Mal Ravanal's Capital, you can then level it into a Grand Knight and it will do even more arcane damage than it would have as a Paladin!<br />
<br />
By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., cavalry and horsemen. If you have the paladin and/or knights from Mal Ravanal's capital, they will be perfect for this job. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, make sure you have several healthy units around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse around the map flagging villages and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.<br />
<br />
Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse. When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.<br />
<br />
Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assassination).<br />
<br />
[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.<br />
<br />
=== Two Paths ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.<br />
<br />
One option is going North on the very West side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.<br />
<br />
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the Northwest in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the Northwest to reach the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal cavalry charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be an easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Undead Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
<br />
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.<br />
<br />
A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.<br />
<br />
Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.<br />
<br />
You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
==== The Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:<br />
*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit<br />
*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units<br />
<br />
Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Orcish force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South. <br />
<br />
On Turn 2, the first contingent of Undead will appear to the South-East of your keep: A weaker leader (Revenant on Medium) "unpacks" a keep and recruits it full of units (on Medium these are L1 recruits). If Gweddry and Owaec are already in the water, you may find yourself pretty bloodied by the encounter; and the Revenant has Gold to spare for more recruiting.<br />
<br />
On Turn 8, the Undead are reinforced by a powerful Lich (on Medium) and a few leveled units (on Medium - two Revenants and a Bone Shooter) - and they get initiative, i.e. they get a round of action before you can attack them. Do you have units ready to take the blow? They might not be numerous, but they're quite deadly when ganging up on a unit of their choice. If, however, your units remain at a distance, the Lich will enter the keep and recruit...<br />
<br />
On the North bank, the Orcs and the Ogres are exchanging blows. Within a couple of turns it becomes apparent the Ogres are going to lose - but you want their leader alive. That means you either have to draw much of the Orcish forces to chase you into the river, or alternatively get Gweddry and Owaec across fast enough so that the Orcs aren't completely done with the Ogres (the Leader will most probably be the last one to die).<br />
<br />
So, when can you afford to send Gweddry and Owaec, and/or other units, up into the water? A slight tactical error in judgement can mean either numerous casualties by the undead, or alternatively loss of your potential Ogre ally.<br />
<br />
If you ''do'' manage to cross before the Ogre leader is dead, he will agrees to help you; you'll get the bonuses listed above and will skip the ''Training the Ogres'' scenario, proceeding directly to ''Xenophobia''.<br />
<br />
<br />
[Allefant]: I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight North from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the North. The Undead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the North side.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the Undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of Undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.<br />
<br />
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first Undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to Seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the Orcs enough to get across while the Undead behind you are not an issue. <br />
<br />
I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him with this strategy, but sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the Orcs South to solve this problem.<br />
<br />
[Hipparchos] Agreed this is the only way to save the ogre leader (all others are too slow). I played this several ways before deciding the easiest is to recruit/recall only units with 6+ movement (Horsemen, Cavalrymen, quick Mages and quick Spearmen) which move 2 hexes through the water. Send them immediately South to the Undead leader's keep and defeat the units there within the first few turns. Then occupy the keep and wait for the reinforcements while one Horseman rides West to take villages. With no keep, the reinforcements are small and easy to defeat. Then you have no problems to your rear as your fast units catch up to Oweac and cross the river. You'll take some hits on the far bank but should get through in time to keep the Ogres alive.<br />
<br />
=== Training the Ogres ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.<br />
<br />
<br />
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".<br />
<br />
Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). It's best to capture at least two.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Xenophobia ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.<br />
<br />
This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the North, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep).<br />
<br />
You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.<br />
<br />
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.<br />
<br />
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.<br />
<br />
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Cavalry, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.<br />
<br />
By the end of this scenario, it's very useful to have Gweddry at least on level 3, allowing you to use his leadership ability on other units like ogres (who reach their maximum at level 2). Leveling up a group of key units will also be very important for the upcoming scenario ''Captured'', where you won't be able to recruit, but a group of your most experienced veterans will have to fight their way out of a cave. You may want to prepare several mages and knights.<br />
<br />
=== Lake Vrug ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 30.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The stronghold provides 100 gold.<br />
<br />
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
There are three keeps, all North of the river. The troll leader has his keep on the Northeast (go to the right into the mountains directly after crossing the bridge). To find the other two keeps, go West right after crossing the river; if you stay close to the Southern line of mountains, you'll find the Gryphon keep pretty easily. Finally, there is a stronghold straight North from the Gryphons, and Dacyn must reach this fortress to complete the level.<br />
<br />
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and as many ogres as possible, because they are probably the most useful unit for this scenario. The reason is simple: the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily. You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead, although using that money for another mage or ogre may be a better investment.<br />
<br />
The action for this scenario can be divided into two phases. The first phase will be surviving the first onslaught of Gryphons and trolls coming your way. This will start around turn 4 with quite a number of Gryphons appearing from the Northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first Gryphon swoop out of the fog, watch out! This means many others are coming behind. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as Gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the Gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.<br />
<br />
Just when you thought you had the Gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of Gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away. Place these troopers on the grassland tiles on the edge of the river, so the trolls coming from the bridge will be forced to attack from unfavorable terrain for them (ice).<br />
<br />
Once you have dealt with this first wave of enemies, the remaining phase consists in crossing the river, finding the enemy leaders and finishing them off, which will be much easier in comparison. Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in this end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.<br />
<br />
[revolting_peasent] Starting with version 1.13, the Gryphon leader recruits Drakes: First Glider Drakes (for the onslaught), then Sky Drakes. The former can be pretty safely defeated by a half-HP Ogre, the latter - not really, even individually. So even one of these can be very troublesome. This is especially true if they somehow gets near Dacyn, which they seem to have an inclination to do.<br />
<br />
=== Captured ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.<br />
** A holy amulet to the South.<br />
<br />
Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. This group only needs to fight an orcish grunt and a few bats as they travel West, then South. Shortly after they encounter the orcish trash heap, one of your rescuers will don a disguise to sneak past the troll guards.<br />
<br />
The disguised unit can open a cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Your three heroes will also be freed, and either Dacyn or Gweddry can reach the final cell to release the last of your troops. You'll be surrounded by Troll Warriors, and unlikely to do enough damage to kill them in the first turn. Sacrifice some of your less experienced troops to block the trolls from reaching any important units. <br />
<br />
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the Southwest corner. There is a holy necklace in the Southeast. Preferably grab the holy amulet with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is).<br />
<br />
If you have a large group of recallable units, loses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for ''Evacuation'', the next scenario.<br />
<br />
=== Evacuation ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 12.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).<br />
<br />
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the South. If you finish by passing the bridge, all your units that are not on the South side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your un-recalled units! Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your un-recalled troops. <br />
<br />
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible" (at least on Hard) - but it is by no means impossible. You will, however, have to wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: It may be necessary to accept significant losses of higher- level troops. You should have a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario, with level 2 units with high experience and close to advancement being your best asset. <br />
<br />
Whichever objective you choose to pursue, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the (Level 3) Warrior Trolls: They can defeat and kill most of your single units within a single turn at night. Best fight them with Mages or arcane-damage-dealing cavalry. Your mounted units are well resistant to impact (30% for Horsemen/Knights, 40% for Cavalry/Dragoons, respectively) and can deal with trolls, especially Paladins, or mounted units with an amulet (-10% Troll resistance instead of +20%). Also, you _will_ run out of money here - either on Turn 1 or on Turn 2, so don't let that large keep make you think all of your buddies will be joining you like in the last scenario.<br />
<br />
Luckily, you can (versions 1.12.2, 1.13.4) lure out the Eastern and the Southern Orc Warlord leaders on Turn 1, and since their recruits can't move on that turn, they will both have opened themselves to be taken out during the next turn. Plan your Turn 1 recruiting and Turn 2 attack carefully, to have enough muscle to take out the leaders and enough brawn and speed not to expose the damaged units too much to the two keep-full's of recruits who will scream bloody murder (literally...). <br />
<br />
The Western Troll-Warrior-lead contingent cannot reach you in full force until turn 3 and (on Medium) may not attack all-out even then, so regardless of the leader lure gambit - deal as much damage as possible during the first day, while maintaining some reserve for defense during the night. <br />
<br />
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially if you're on Hard or short on gold. Run South with a sufficient amount of screening units and hopefully those units you want to try and evacuate (they shouldn't be slow ones). Focus on running the Engineer - using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable (sigh...). Engage the enemy sparingly, only at those points necessary to clear the way for the evacuee units, or where you see an opportunity to level-up and heal. With the large keep in this scenario you have no excuse to dilly-dally.<br />
<br />
On Hard, If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for leveling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Besieged'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.<br />
<br />
WanderingHero: While this scenario is cruel, its not as asinine as it appears. You've already beaten the hardest scenarios of the campaign, so you don't have much to worry about taking losses. Try saving a White Mage, and maybe a Knight that's close to Paladin or a Paladin; although even this is hardly essential. Your heavily armored units and able-bodied Ogres can be used to wall the enemy. Although the situation looks grim, you're actually near the end of the campaign, and the worst is behind you. You'll see the Checkered flag soon enough...<br />
<br />
=== The Drowned Plains ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
Khrakrahs is a level-4 Skeletal Dragon that will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the South). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.<br />
<br />
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units —preferrably using impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there. Magical attacks from your magi are also very effective against the dragon.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity for all the units with holy amulets you still have with you. Use them against the ambushers. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of your best anti-undead units, find and kill the dragon and reap the reward.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Approaching Weldyn ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
The objective is simple enough; Gweddry has to reach the castle occupied by Konrad II. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.<br />
<br />
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.<br />
<br />
=== The Council ===<br />
<br />
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.<br />
<br />
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.<br />
<br />
At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders (Liches) with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The Southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits Nightgaunts, the Southeastern Lich is the only one that recruits Blood Bats, and the Northern Lich is the only one that recruits Spectres.<br />
<br />
The time of-day cycle in this scenario is 3 times slower than usual, and it starts at sunset, so the first 3 turns are Dusk, and then it's night-time (first and second watch) during another half of the entire scenario, which is painful - literally, considering the damage the Undead will deal your troops. Fearless or Neutral-alignment units are important, as is careful use of your Mages of Light's Illumination (see also below).<br />
<br />
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the Liches and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the Northern keep.<br />
<br />
Typically, the backbone of your army will be Heavy Infantry track units, Mages, and your Mages of Light (Dacyn and hopefully at least another one). On the first turn, recall one of each, plus 3 Cavalry units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the cavalry to rob your allies of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the cavalry can run around to distract the enemy. Send your Heavy infantry types, Mages, and Mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: Arch Mages, Silver Mages, White Mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios.<br />
<br />
However, if you managed to get your forces off the lake Vrug island in ''Evacuation'' (without blowing up the bridge), it's likely you are now able to recall a good number of Level-3 units with arcane attacks and maybe you even have a couple of Ogres. If that's the case you stand a chance (on Medium and v1.13.4 anyway) to assassinate the Northern Lich before he runs out of money. The way to do it is instruct the Northwestern allied leader to attack the Northern Lich. Your units will set up in the fortified positions near the bridge due North, and in the villages - drawing some enemy units into the water and clearing one or two for your ally - while he, brilliant tactician that he is, sends his units blindly forward, North across the bridge and the stream to tackle the Lich's recruits head-on. This will bring the Weldyn units (mostly Mages probably) within range of the Lich himself, and he may come out for an attack - and into the water. If this happens (possibly on Turn 4 or 5) - make a gambit for his life: One unit can attack him from the bridge and one or two from the water. Of course these have to be arcane attacks, otherwise you're probably not going to kill him off; and apply Illumination to the attacker and maybe the Lich itself (i.e. make a Mage of Light one of the attackers). To complete the gambit, have some high-HP units defend the wounded attackers of the Lich from the side, so they don't get picked off easily the next round. Still, an L2 unit or even a Paladin is not a terrible loss in exchange for a Lich leader and his 100-gold-or-more in unrecruited units. <br />
<br />
... But it's more likely not to have such a convenient strike force, in which case you probably not be able to assassinate the Lich before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.<br />
<br />
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your cavalry. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now if you're in a bind (saving gold is a luxury in this level which would help you in 'Weldyn Besieged'). Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two Liches. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, cavalry, and/or silver Mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.<br />
<br />
For your main force, unless you have taken over the South-Western keep, you need to mind those invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that can be up to no good... they are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.<br />
<br />
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a Shock Trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a General up to lend Leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.<br />
<br />
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two to attack the remaining two Liches. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to ''Weldyn Besieged''.<br />
<br />
If you have one or two Silver Mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking. Make good use of Gweddry's leadership ability (he should be a Grand Marshal by now), and of Konrad's Sceptre of Fire to get rid of the most dangerous enemies coming your way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the scenario, you must choose between challenging Mal-Ravanal to a duel (''The Duel'') or defending Weldyn against the final Undead attack (''Weldyn Besieged''). ''Weldyn Besieged'' is intended as a challenging final scenario; players without a good recall list and sizable warchest will find ''The Duel'' much more accommodating.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== The Duel ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** You can only recruit for the first turn.<br />
<br />
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.<br />
<br />
Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.<br />
<br />
Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack.<br />
<br />
==== Weldyn Besieged ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.<br />
<br />
This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.<br />
<br />
A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheEasternInvasion&diff=70471TheEasternInvasion2023-01-30T01:36:01Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Undead Border Patrol */</p>
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<div>:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''<br />
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In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sargeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.<br />
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As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign, since it contains quite a few surprises along the way, and at some points you will have to make choices that will have important repercussions for later scenarios. You may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios ''Captured'', ''Evacuation'' and ''Weldyn Under Attack'' in order to plan ahead.<br />
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You will encounter different types of enemies, mostly undead units (especially towards the beginning and the end of the campaign), as well as orcs and trolls. Mages and Heavy Infantrymen will provide the backbone of your army. You'll probably want to level up at least one extra Mage of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages and Iron Maulers. You can also recruit Spearman, Cavalryman and Horseman units (the latter a few scenarios into the campaign), but their importance is perhaps less pronounced in many of the scenarios.<br />
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You will encounter a few tough challenges along the way, so be prepared, and be careful assigning experience to your units, especially during the first few scenarios.<br />
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=== The Outpost ===<br />
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* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
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Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. All will produce skeletons and skeleton archers, but in addition the northernmost enemy will recruit walking corpses, the middle one will recruit bats, and the southern one will recruit bone shooters and revenants. <br />
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On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead. On turn 10 (easy) or 12 (hard) Dacyn returns and points out a trap door to exit the level. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16). All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost and suddenly recruit a surge of new units the turn after Dacyn returns.<br />
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There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 90% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks allow them to do great damage against skeletons, skeleton archers, revenants, and bone shooters, which will be the vast majority of your opponents' forces, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. They are even decent against bats, as they can usually kill them in a single strike and therefore nullify the effectiveness of their drain attacks. Walking corpses will give them a little trouble, but the northern leader usually doesn't recruit enough of them to be a major problem. <br />
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Defensive approach #1: <br />
The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage. Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the Northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.<br />
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Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.<br />
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Defensive approach #2: <br />
The goal is to fall back and defend the Western bank of the river up through turn 9, then counterattack across the bridge on turns 10-11 so Gweddry is in position to immediately exit on turn 12. Recruit 4 HI and 2 magi on turn one, then keep recruiting more HI as often as you can up through turn 5. Use the magi and Dacyn to hold the central villages from bats while Gweddry recruits and your HI take up their positions on the far river bank. As darkness falls, you should abandon the villages and get your final units across the river as well. Most of the undead won't be able to reach your positions until dawn, when you'll have the advantage of daylight to slaughter anything crossing the river. This should destroy most of the first wave. By dusk, start preparing your forces to mass on the bridge, where they want to punch through any undead stragglers and reoccupy your keep on turn 11 for a final last stand. As soon as Dacyn reappears on turn 12, get Gweddry to the trap door before your survivors are overwhelmed.<br />
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Offensive approach: <br />
recruit 6 HI and send them and Dacyn straight for the middle leader. Recruit another HI the following turn and send it after them. Your goal is to completely eliminate the central leader's forces before reinforcements can arrive, and then take him out by turn 6-7 to stop his recruitment. One big advantage of this is that he is the only leader who recruits bats, so once you take him out you don't have to worry about any more bats harassing your wounded and stealing your villages.<br />
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After your 7 initial HI are on their way, keep Gweddry in the keep to recruit 2-3 additional HI who will defend the southwest villages against the eventual arrival of the southern leader's forces. Steal a kill with Gweddry when the opportunity presents itself. <br />
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Then recruit what you want, ideally at least 1 more mage to start feeding xp to become another healer. Keep in mind that there's no early finish bonus, and with this strategy you should hold on to a lot of villages, so delay going for the trap door as long as possible to hoard gold and farm xp. <br />
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The victory conditions include killing all enemy leaders, but this seems nearly impossible on the highest difficulty. If anyone has managed it, feel free to explain how you did it!<br />
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=== Escape Tunnel ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Permanent holy amulet in the North.<br />
** Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast<br />
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This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.<br />
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Take some time to choose your supporting units, depending on which ones you want to level up the quickest. Heavy Infantry are excellent frontline units, but the downside is that they move very slowly in caves. However, since Gweddry is the only unit that ''has'' to get quickly to the far West, this might not be a big problem. You can also go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. One keep of units in total should easily be enough—there's also a convenient keep with one castle tile to recruit additional units in the middle of the map, in case you need it during the battle. You can save time by recruiting your faster units at your starting keep and your HI at the central keep, so they don't have to walk down the long tunnel to the front line. <br />
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The map is quite small. A little East from your keep the path is forked into three directions: North is a small area with a holy amulet, East is the troll keep and South is the dwarven keep. These two last paths will merge again to the East, leading to the exit, where Gweddry needs to go. The dwarves are friendly and will help you fight your enemies. The trolls and undead are hostile to each other as well as to you and the dwarves. <br />
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The holy amulet to the North is a very useful item, which will make all the attacks (melee and ranged) of the unit that picks it up of type ''arcane''—and, unlike in other campaigns, this holy amulet is permanent! Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the scenario ''The Crossing'', where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.<br />
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Both your challenges and your tools in this scenario are bottlenecks. Troll whelps will clog up the narrow tunnel to your east, and the undead horde will try to flow through the narrow tunnel to your west. <br />
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The simplest way through this scenario is through pure cowardice. Recruit 1-2 spearmen at your starting keep and run Gweddry straight for the amulet. Have Dacyn and the spearmen passively block the trolls in their eastern tunnel until Gweddry has the amulet, then pull everyone south into the dwarven section of the tunnels, leaving the dwarves to face the trolls alone. Leave one spearman at the village at 18.11 to block any undead who are following, and have the rest of your forces head east. Have Dacyn or another spearman grab the treasure at 35.8, while Gweddry follows the tunnel to the exit at 37.5. The advantage of this strategy is a big gold carryover due to spending almost none of your starting gold AND getting a big early finish bonus. The disadvantage is you will gain almost no xp, and if the undead get lucky and take out the troll leader VERY quickly, you might get stuck if some wraiths get into the eastern end of the tunnels before you. <br />
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If you want to get more xp out of this scenario, you can either block the undead or outrun them, while you take on the trolls head on. To out-run them, you will need to break through the bottleneck of troll whelps by brute force. This will require some lvl 2 units from last scenario, ideally fearless shocktroopers and/or red mages. lvl 1 units alone will simply not be able to deal enough reliable damage each turn to kill all the whelps in the narrow tunnel before the undead catch up. Focus on doing as much damage as possible to the trolls each turn and finishing them off as quickly as possible to get around their regeneration. Once you break through the troll blockade, run for it, killing the troll leader in passing. This is easy because he is totally passive and will not attack you. Send a quick unit to grab the chest while gweddry heads for the door. <br />
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If you don't have enough high damage-dealers to break through the trolls quickly enough, you can block the undead to buy more time. Leaving a sacrificial spearman/HI on the village at 7.7 can buy you an extra 1-2 turns by itself if it gets lucky. You can also establish a defensive line anchored by the hills at 12.5 and the one castle tile of the central keep. Good use of healers and rotating wounded units, along with playing relatively passively (i.e. not attacking so you won't take any retaliation damage), can allow 4-5 spearmen/HI to hold that line for a very long time while the rest of your forces cooperate with the dwarves to get through the trolls.<br />
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=== An Unexpected Appearance ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.<br />
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In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West (Mal-Skraat) will take you to the ''Elven Alliance'' scenario, while the one to the West (Mal-Kallat) takes you to ''The Undead Border Patrol''.<br />
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Going East is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a loyal Paladin and several Knights.<br />
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Firstly, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep: either shoot him with Dacyn's ranged and Gweddry's melee attacks for a 1-turn kill, or attack using melee only to wound him (Dacyn is likelier to emerge less wounded this way). If you don't kill him the first turn, Mal-Tar recruits 3 soulless then retreats to the nearby village to heal. But that gives you more easy xp to farm... so food for thought. <br />
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You will be fighting a mix of skeletons & skeleton archers, along with skeleton riders and soulless (in the West) and vampire bats and ghouls (in the East). So recruiting Heavy Infantry and Magi work well (and recall whomever you gave the amulet to in the previous scenario), plus a single spearman or cavalry to grab villages and/or act as expendable blocker if you can't afford a last HI/mage. Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village to heal ASAP, as he will be the core mobile healer of your army unless you have another white mage. <br />
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Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups. <br />
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On easy or medium difficulty the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units with Dacyn positioned at the epicenter of your assault so he can heal the wounded. <br />
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It's a good idea to pick which leader you're going to kill and move all your forces in that direction asap. You won't be able to completely outrun the skeleton riders from the west or the bats from the east, but if you move quickly you should be able to take out most of one opponent's forces before the others catch up to you.<br />
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
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==== Elven Alliance ====<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
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The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear near the elf leader on turn 6.<br />
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Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.<br />
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Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.<br />
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There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.<br />
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.<br />
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Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.<br />
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==== The Undead Border Patrol ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/23/22.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
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This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. There is a Dark Sorcerer in the Northwest corner and a Lich in the Southeast corner. Defeating the Lich (Mal-Telnarad) will give you the chance to go to ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging but rewarding scenario, while defeating the sorcerer (Mal-Skraat) is easier, and takes you directly to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
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If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The terrain is more open and the necromancer has less gold to recruit with than the lich. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance—you may recruit a couple of suicide cavalrymen to distract bats and grab distant towns. One might even get enough XP this way to be worth recalling in later scenarios. Because of the open terrain, it is recommended to use mostly heavy infantry and your holy amulet unit on this level backed up by a few magi. As in most scenarios against undead, white magi are very useful for their arcane attack as well as mobile healers. Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand; this gives you a significant advantage.<br />
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If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp, but the lich can be drawn out of his fortress to fight in the swamp as soon as you come within range. Gweddry can lure enemy units into chasing him by moving Southwest into the mountains, thereby diverting many undead from contesting the river crossing. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process, though alternatively Gweddry can lure these too. You can also win by just rushing all of your units across the river asap, as it only then takes one or two to defend the river crossing against any undead following you. Keep in mind that the bridges in the swamp count as flat ground, so they will be key highways for your HI. <br />
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Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.<br />
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==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario. <br />
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Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.<br />
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The main reason to get here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and five Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first), but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.<br />
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The regular Time of Day cycle does not apply here. Instead, dusk and night are twice as long as usual. The large accumulating mob of undead will mull around in the center until turn 7 or so before swarming in Gweddry's general direction. Prior to that you can 'pull' the mob North or South by relocating Gweddry or alternatively by moving decoy units closer to the center, so adjust your tactics accordingly. Most importantly, try to finish the mission quickly.<br />
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''On easy'': This is still a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in position to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
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[Thrash] My take on just getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East (and center). Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6 [?in which version?]. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.<br />
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=== The Northern Outpost ===<br />
* '''Objectives''':<br />
** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.<br />
** Defeat the undead leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.<br />
** Horseman units can now be recruited.<br />
** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.<br />
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This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.<br />
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Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each.<br />
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The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn will be busy with his special spell to reveal the outlaws for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the Southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a cavalryman/horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the Southwest.<br />
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By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., cavalry and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, make sure you have several healthy units around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the Western side of the map flagging villages and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.<br />
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Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse. When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.<br />
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Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.<br />
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Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assassination).<br />
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[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.<br />
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=== Two Paths ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.<br />
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One option is going North on the very West side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.<br />
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Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the Northwest in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the Northwest to reach the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
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On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal cavalry charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.<br />
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It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be an easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).<br />
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
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==== Undead Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
<br />
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.<br />
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A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.<br />
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Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.<br />
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You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
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==== The Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:<br />
*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit<br />
*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units<br />
<br />
Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Orcish force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South. <br />
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On Turn 2, the first contingent of Undead will appear to the South-East of your keep: A weaker leader (Revenant on Medium) "unpacks" a keep and recruits it full of units (on Medium these are L1 recruits). If Gweddry and Owaec are already in the water, you may find yourself pretty bloodied by the encounter; and the Revenant has Gold to spare for more recruiting.<br />
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On Turn 8, the Undead are reinforced by a powerful Lich (on Medium) and a few leveled units (on Medium - two Revenants and a Bone Shooter) - and they get initiative, i.e. they get a round of action before you can attack them. Do you have units ready to take the blow? They might not be numerous, but they're quite deadly when ganging up on a unit of their choice. If, however, your units remain at a distance, the Lich will enter the keep and recruit...<br />
<br />
On the North bank, the Orcs and the Ogres are exchanging blows. Within a couple of turns it becomes apparent the Ogres are going to lose - but you want their leader alive. That means you either have to draw much of the Orcish forces to chase you into the river, or alternatively get Gweddry and Owaec across fast enough so that the Orcs aren't completely done with the Ogres (the Leader will most probably be the last one to die).<br />
<br />
So, when can you afford to send Gweddry and Owaec, and/or other units, up into the water? A slight tactical error in judgement can mean either numerous casualties by the undead, or alternatively loss of your potential Ogre ally.<br />
<br />
If you ''do'' manage to cross before the Ogre leader is dead, he will agrees to help you; you'll get the bonuses listed above and will skip the ''Training the Ogres'' scenario, proceeding directly to ''Xenophobia''.<br />
<br />
<br />
[Allefant]: I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight North from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the North. The Undead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the North side.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the Undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of Undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.<br />
<br />
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first Undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to Seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the Orcs enough to get across while the Undead behind you are not an issue. <br />
<br />
I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him with this strategy, but sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the Orcs South to solve this problem.<br />
<br />
[Hipparchos] Agreed this is the only way to save the ogre leader (all others are too slow). I played this several ways before deciding the easiest is to recruit/recall only units with 6+ movement (Horsemen, Cavalrymen, quick Mages and quick Spearmen) which move 2 hexes through the water. Send them immediately South to the Undead leader's keep and defeat the units there within the first few turns. Then occupy the keep and wait for the reinforcements while one Horseman rides West to take villages. With no keep, the reinforcements are small and easy to defeat. Then you have no problems to your rear as your fast units catch up to Oweac and cross the river. You'll take some hits on the far bank but should get through in time to keep the Ogres alive.<br />
<br />
=== Training the Ogres ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.<br />
<br />
<br />
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".<br />
<br />
Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). It's best to capture at least two.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Xenophobia ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.<br />
<br />
This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the North, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep).<br />
<br />
You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.<br />
<br />
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.<br />
<br />
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.<br />
<br />
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Cavalry, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.<br />
<br />
By the end of this scenario, it's very useful to have Gweddry at least on level 3, allowing you to use his leadership ability on other units like ogres (who reach their maximum at level 2). Leveling up a group of key units will also be very important for the upcoming scenario ''Captured'', where you won't be able to recruit, but a group of your most experienced veterans will have to fight their way out of a cave. You may want to prepare several mages and knights.<br />
<br />
=== Lake Vrug ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 30.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The stronghold provides 100 gold.<br />
<br />
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
There are three keeps, all North of the river. The troll leader has his keep on the Northeast (go to the right into the mountains directly after crossing the bridge). To find the other two keeps, go West right after crossing the river; if you stay close to the Southern line of mountains, you'll find the Gryphon keep pretty easily. Finally, there is a stronghold straight North from the Gryphons, and Dacyn must reach this fortress to complete the level.<br />
<br />
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and as many ogres as possible, because they are probably the most useful unit for this scenario. The reason is simple: the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily. You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead, although using that money for another mage or ogre may be a better investment.<br />
<br />
The action for this scenario can be divided into two phases. The first phase will be surviving the first onslaught of Gryphons and trolls coming your way. This will start around turn 4 with quite a number of Gryphons appearing from the Northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first Gryphon swoop out of the fog, watch out! This means many others are coming behind. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as Gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the Gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.<br />
<br />
Just when you thought you had the Gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of Gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away. Place these troopers on the grassland tiles on the edge of the river, so the trolls coming from the bridge will be forced to attack from unfavorable terrain for them (ice).<br />
<br />
Once you have dealt with this first wave of enemies, the remaining phase consists in crossing the river, finding the enemy leaders and finishing them off, which will be much easier in comparison. Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in this end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.<br />
<br />
[revolting_peasent] Starting with version 1.13, the Gryphon leader recruits Drakes: First Glider Drakes (for the onslaught), then Sky Drakes. The former can be pretty safely defeated by a half-HP Ogre, the latter - not really, even individually. So even one of these can be very troublesome. This is especially true if they somehow gets near Dacyn, which they seem to have an inclination to do.<br />
<br />
=== Captured ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.<br />
** A holy amulet to the South.<br />
<br />
Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. This group only needs to fight an orcish grunt and a few bats as they travel West, then South. Shortly after they encounter the orcish trash heap, one of your rescuers will don a disguise to sneak past the troll guards.<br />
<br />
The disguised unit can open a cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Your three heroes will also be freed, and either Dacyn or Gweddry can reach the final cell to release the last of your troops. You'll be surrounded by Troll Warriors, and unlikely to do enough damage to kill them in the first turn. Sacrifice some of your less experienced troops to block the trolls from reaching any important units. <br />
<br />
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the Southwest corner. There is a holy necklace in the Southeast. Preferably grab the holy amulet with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is).<br />
<br />
If you have a large group of recallable units, loses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for ''Evacuation'', the next scenario.<br />
<br />
=== Evacuation ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 12.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).<br />
<br />
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the South. If you finish by passing the bridge, all your units that are not on the South side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your un-recalled units! Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your un-recalled troops. <br />
<br />
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible" (at least on Hard) - but it is by no means impossible. You will, however, have to wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: It may be necessary to accept significant losses of higher- level troops. You should have a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario, with level 2 units with high experience and close to advancement being your best asset. <br />
<br />
Whichever objective you choose to pursue, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the (Level 3) Warrior Trolls: They can defeat and kill most of your single units within a single turn at night. Best fight them with Mages or arcane-damage-dealing cavalry. Your mounted units are well resistant to impact (30% for Horsemen/Knights, 40% for Cavalry/Dragoons, respectively) and can deal with trolls, especially Paladins, or mounted units with an amulet (-10% Troll resistance instead of +20%). Also, you _will_ run out of money here - either on Turn 1 or on Turn 2, so don't let that large keep make you think all of your buddies will be joining you like in the last scenario.<br />
<br />
Luckily, you can (versions 1.12.2, 1.13.4) lure out the Eastern and the Southern Orc Warlord leaders on Turn 1, and since their recruits can't move on that turn, they will both have opened themselves to be taken out during the next turn. Plan your Turn 1 recruiting and Turn 2 attack carefully, to have enough muscle to take out the leaders and enough brawn and speed not to expose the damaged units too much to the two keep-full's of recruits who will scream bloody murder (literally...). <br />
<br />
The Western Troll-Warrior-lead contingent cannot reach you in full force until turn 3 and (on Medium) may not attack all-out even then, so regardless of the leader lure gambit - deal as much damage as possible during the first day, while maintaining some reserve for defense during the night. <br />
<br />
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially if you're on Hard or short on gold. Run South with a sufficient amount of screening units and hopefully those units you want to try and evacuate (they shouldn't be slow ones). Focus on running the Engineer - using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable (sigh...). Engage the enemy sparingly, only at those points necessary to clear the way for the evacuee units, or where you see an opportunity to level-up and heal. With the large keep in this scenario you have no excuse to dilly-dally.<br />
<br />
On Hard, If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for leveling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Besieged'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.<br />
<br />
WanderingHero: While this scenario is cruel, its not as asinine as it appears. You've already beaten the hardest scenarios of the campaign, so you don't have much to worry about taking losses. Try saving a White Mage, and maybe a Knight that's close to Paladin or a Paladin; although even this is hardly essential. Your heavily armored units and able-bodied Ogres can be used to wall the enemy. Although the situation looks grim, you're actually near the end of the campaign, and the worst is behind you. You'll see the Checkered flag soon enough...<br />
<br />
=== The Drowned Plains ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
Khrakrahs is a level-4 Skeletal Dragon that will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the South). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.<br />
<br />
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units —preferrably using impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there. Magical attacks from your magi are also very effective against the dragon.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity for all the units with holy amulets you still have with you. Use them against the ambushers. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of your best anti-undead units, find and kill the dragon and reap the reward.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Approaching Weldyn ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
The objective is simple enough; Gweddry has to reach the castle occupied by Konrad II. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.<br />
<br />
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.<br />
<br />
=== The Council ===<br />
<br />
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.<br />
<br />
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.<br />
<br />
At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders (Liches) with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The Southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits Nightgaunts, the Southeastern Lich is the only one that recruits Blood Bats, and the Northern Lich is the only one that recruits Spectres.<br />
<br />
The time of-day cycle in this scenario is 3 times slower than usual, and it starts at sunset, so the first 3 turns are Dusk, and then it's night-time (first and second watch) during another half of the entire scenario, which is painful - literally, considering the damage the Undead will deal your troops. Fearless or Neutral-alignment units are important, as is careful use of your Mages of Light's Illumination (see also below).<br />
<br />
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the Liches and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the Northern keep.<br />
<br />
Typically, the backbone of your army will be Heavy Infantry track units, Mages, and your Mages of Light (Dacyn and hopefully at least another one). On the first turn, recall one of each, plus 3 Cavalry units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the cavalry to rob your allies of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the cavalry can run around to distract the enemy. Send your Heavy infantry types, Mages, and Mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: Arch Mages, Silver Mages, White Mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios.<br />
<br />
However, if you managed to get your forces off the lake Vrug island in ''Evacuation'' (without blowing up the bridge), it's likely you are now able to recall a good number of Level-3 units with arcane attacks and maybe you even have a couple of Ogres. If that's the case you stand a chance (on Medium and v1.13.4 anyway) to assassinate the Northern Lich before he runs out of money. The way to do it is instruct the Northwestern allied leader to attack the Northern Lich. Your units will set up in the fortified positions near the bridge due North, and in the villages - drawing some enemy units into the water and clearing one or two for your ally - while he, brilliant tactician that he is, sends his units blindly forward, North across the bridge and the stream to tackle the Lich's recruits head-on. This will bring the Weldyn units (mostly Mages probably) within range of the Lich himself, and he may come out for an attack - and into the water. If this happens (possibly on Turn 4 or 5) - make a gambit for his life: One unit can attack him from the bridge and one or two from the water. Of course these have to be arcane attacks, otherwise you're probably not going to kill him off; and apply Illumination to the attacker and maybe the Lich itself (i.e. make a Mage of Light one of the attackers). To complete the gambit, have some high-HP units defend the wounded attackers of the Lich from the side, so they don't get picked off easily the next round. Still, an L2 unit or even a Paladin is not a terrible loss in exchange for a Lich leader and his 100-gold-or-more in unrecruited units. <br />
<br />
... But it's more likely not to have such a convenient strike force, in which case you probably not be able to assassinate the Lich before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.<br />
<br />
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your cavalry. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now if you're in a bind (saving gold is a luxury in this level which would help you in 'Weldyn Besieged'). Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two Liches. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, cavalry, and/or silver Mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.<br />
<br />
For your main force, unless you have taken over the South-Western keep, you need to mind those invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that can be up to no good... they are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.<br />
<br />
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a Shock Trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a General up to lend Leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.<br />
<br />
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two to attack the remaining two Liches. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to ''Weldyn Besieged''.<br />
<br />
If you have one or two Silver Mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking. Make good use of Gweddry's leadership ability (he should be a Grand Marshal by now), and of Konrad's Sceptre of Fire to get rid of the most dangerous enemies coming your way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the scenario, you must choose between challenging Mal-Ravanal to a duel (''The Duel'') or defending Weldyn against the final Undead attack (''Weldyn Besieged''). ''Weldyn Besieged'' is intended as a challenging final scenario; players without a good recall list and sizable warchest will find ''The Duel'' much more accommodating.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== The Duel ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** You can only recruit for the first turn.<br />
<br />
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.<br />
<br />
Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.<br />
<br />
Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack.<br />
<br />
==== Weldyn Besieged ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.<br />
<br />
This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.<br />
<br />
A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheEasternInvasion&diff=70436TheEasternInvasion2023-01-28T18:11:18Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* An Unexpected Appearance */</p>
<hr />
<div>:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''<br />
<br />
<br />
In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sargeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.<br />
<br />
As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign, since it contains quite a few surprises along the way, and at some points you will have to make choices that will have important repercussions for later scenarios. You may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios ''Captured'', ''Evacuation'' and ''Weldyn Under Attack'' in order to plan ahead.<br />
<br />
You will encounter different types of enemies, mostly undead units (especially towards the beginning and the end of the campaign), as well as orcs and trolls. Mages and Heavy Infantrymen will provide the backbone of your army. You'll probably want to level up at least one extra Mage of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages and Iron Maulers. You can also recruit Spearman, Cavalryman and Horseman units (the latter a few scenarios into the campaign), but their importance is perhaps less pronounced in many of the scenarios.<br />
<br />
You will encounter a few tough challenges along the way, so be prepared, and be careful assigning experience to your units, especially during the first few scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== The Outpost ===<br />
<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. All will produce skeletons and skeleton archers, but in addition the northernmost enemy will recruit walking corpses, the middle one will recruit bats, and the southern one will recruit bone shooters and revenants. <br />
<br />
On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead. On turn 10 (easy) or 12 (hard) Dacyn returns and points out a trap door to exit the level. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16). All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost and suddenly recruit a surge of new units the turn after Dacyn returns.<br />
<br />
There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 90% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks allow them to do great damage against skeletons, skeleton archers, revenants, and bone shooters, which will be the vast majority of your opponents' forces, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. They are even decent against bats, as they can usually kill them in a single strike and therefore nullify the effectiveness of their drain attacks. Walking corpses will give them a little trouble, but the northern leader usually doesn't recruit enough of them to be a major problem. <br />
<br />
Defensive approach #1: <br />
The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage. Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the Northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.<br />
<br />
Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.<br />
<br />
Defensive approach #2: <br />
The goal is to fall back and defend the Western bank of the river up through turn 9, then counterattack across the bridge on turns 10-11 so Gweddry is in position to immediately exit on turn 12. Recruit 4 HI and 2 magi on turn one, then keep recruiting more HI as often as you can up through turn 5. Use the magi and Dacyn to hold the central villages from bats while Gweddry recruits and your HI take up their positions on the far river bank. As darkness falls, you should abandon the villages and get your final units across the river as well. Most of the undead won't be able to reach your positions until dawn, when you'll have the advantage of daylight to slaughter anything crossing the river. This should destroy most of the first wave. By dusk, start preparing your forces to mass on the bridge, where they want to punch through any undead stragglers and reoccupy your keep on turn 11 for a final last stand. As soon as Dacyn reappears on turn 12, get Gweddry to the trap door before your survivors are overwhelmed.<br />
<br />
Offensive approach: <br />
recruit 6 HI and send them and Dacyn straight for the middle leader. Recruit another HI the following turn and send it after them. Your goal is to completely eliminate the central leader's forces before reinforcements can arrive, and then take him out by turn 6-7 to stop his recruitment. One big advantage of this is that he is the only leader who recruits bats, so once you take him out you don't have to worry about any more bats harassing your wounded and stealing your villages.<br />
<br />
After your 7 initial HI are on their way, keep Gweddry in the keep to recruit 2-3 additional HI who will defend the southwest villages against the eventual arrival of the southern leader's forces. Steal a kill with Gweddry when the opportunity presents itself. <br />
<br />
Then recruit what you want, ideally at least 1 more mage to start feeding xp to become another healer. Keep in mind that there's no early finish bonus, and with this strategy you should hold on to a lot of villages, so delay going for the trap door as long as possible to hoard gold and farm xp. <br />
<br />
The victory conditions include killing all enemy leaders, but this seems nearly impossible on the highest difficulty. If anyone has managed it, feel free to explain how you did it!<br />
<br />
=== Escape Tunnel ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Permanent holy amulet in the North.<br />
** Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast<br />
<br />
This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.<br />
<br />
Take some time to choose your supporting units, depending on which ones you want to level up the quickest. Heavy Infantry are excellent frontline units, but the downside is that they move very slowly in caves. However, since Gweddry is the only unit that ''has'' to get quickly to the far West, this might not be a big problem. You can also go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. One keep of units in total should easily be enough—there's also a convenient keep with one castle tile to recruit additional units in the middle of the map, in case you need it during the battle. You can save time by recruiting your faster units at your starting keep and your HI at the central keep, so they don't have to walk down the long tunnel to the front line. <br />
<br />
The map is quite small. A little East from your keep the path is forked into three directions: North is a small area with a holy amulet, East is the troll keep and South is the dwarven keep. These two last paths will merge again to the East, leading to the exit, where Gweddry needs to go. The dwarves are friendly and will help you fight your enemies. The trolls and undead are hostile to each other as well as to you and the dwarves. <br />
<br />
The holy amulet to the North is a very useful item, which will make all the attacks (melee and ranged) of the unit that picks it up of type ''arcane''—and, unlike in other campaigns, this holy amulet is permanent! Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the scenario ''The Crossing'', where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.<br />
<br />
Both your challenges and your tools in this scenario are bottlenecks. Troll whelps will clog up the narrow tunnel to your east, and the undead horde will try to flow through the narrow tunnel to your west. <br />
<br />
The simplest way through this scenario is through pure cowardice. Recruit 1-2 spearmen at your starting keep and run Gweddry straight for the amulet. Have Dacyn and the spearmen passively block the trolls in their eastern tunnel until Gweddry has the amulet, then pull everyone south into the dwarven section of the tunnels, leaving the dwarves to face the trolls alone. Leave one spearman at the village at 18.11 to block any undead who are following, and have the rest of your forces head east. Have Dacyn or another spearman grab the treasure at 35.8, while Gweddry follows the tunnel to the exit at 37.5. The advantage of this strategy is a big gold carryover due to spending almost none of your starting gold AND getting a big early finish bonus. The disadvantage is you will gain almost no xp, and if the undead get lucky and take out the troll leader VERY quickly, you might get stuck if some wraiths get into the eastern end of the tunnels before you. <br />
<br />
If you want to get more xp out of this scenario, you can either block the undead or outrun them, while you take on the trolls head on. To out-run them, you will need to break through the bottleneck of troll whelps by brute force. This will require some lvl 2 units from last scenario, ideally fearless shocktroopers and/or red mages. lvl 1 units alone will simply not be able to deal enough reliable damage each turn to kill all the whelps in the narrow tunnel before the undead catch up. Focus on doing as much damage as possible to the trolls each turn and finishing them off as quickly as possible to get around their regeneration. Once you break through the troll blockade, run for it, killing the troll leader in passing. This is easy because he is totally passive and will not attack you. Send a quick unit to grab the chest while gweddry heads for the door. <br />
<br />
If you don't have enough high damage-dealers to break through the trolls quickly enough, you can block the undead to buy more time. Leaving a sacrificial spearman/HI on the village at 7.7 can buy you an extra 1-2 turns by itself if it gets lucky. You can also establish a defensive line anchored by the hills at 12.5 and the one castle tile of the central keep. Good use of healers and rotating wounded units, along with playing relatively passively (i.e. not attacking so you won't take any retaliation damage), can allow 4-5 spearmen/HI to hold that line for a very long time while the rest of your forces cooperate with the dwarves to get through the trolls.<br />
<br />
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.<br />
<br />
In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West (Mal-Skraat) will take you to the ''Elven Alliance'' scenario, while the one to the West (Mal-Kallat) takes you to ''The Undead Border Patrol''.<br />
<br />
Going East is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a loyal Paladin and several Knights.<br />
<br />
Firstly, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep: either shoot him with Dacyn's ranged and Gweddry's melee attacks for a 1-turn kill, or attack using melee only to wound him (Dacyn is likelier to emerge less wounded this way). If you don't kill him the first turn, Mal-Tar recruits 3 soulless then retreats to the nearby village to heal. But that gives you more easy xp to farm... so food for thought. <br />
<br />
You will be fighting a mix of skeletons & skeleton archers, along with skeleton riders and soulless (in the West) and vampire bats and ghouls (in the East). So recruiting Heavy Infantry and Magi work well (and recall whomever you gave the amulet to in the previous scenario), plus a single spearman or cavalry to grab villages and/or act as expendable blocker if you can't afford a last HI/mage. Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village to heal ASAP, as he will be the core mobile healer of your army unless you have another white mage. <br />
<br />
Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups. <br />
<br />
On easy or medium difficulty the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units with Dacyn positioned at the epicenter of your assault so he can heal the wounded. <br />
<br />
It's a good idea to pick which leader you're going to kill and move all your forces in that direction asap. You won't be able to completely outrun the skeleton riders from the west or the bats from the east, but if you move quickly you should be able to take out most of one opponent's forces before the others catch up to you.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Elven Alliance ====<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear near the elf leader on turn 6.<br />
<br />
Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.<br />
<br />
Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.<br />
<br />
There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.<br />
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.<br />
<br />
Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.<br />
<br />
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. There is a Dark Sorcerer in the Northwest corner and a Lich in the South-West corner. Defeating the Lich (Mal-Telnarad) will give you the chance to go to ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging but rewarding scenario, while defeating the sorcerer (Mal-Skraat) is easier, and takes you directly to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The terrain is more open and the necromancer has less gold to recruit with than the lich. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance—you may recruit a couple of suicide cavalrymen to distract bats and grab distant towns. One might even get enough XP this way to be worth recalling in later scenarios. Because of the open terrain, it is recommended to use mostly heavy infantry and your holy amulet unit on this level backed up by a few magi. As in most scenarios against undead, white magi are very useful for their arcane attack as well as mobile healers. Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand; this gives you a significant advantage.<br />
<br />
If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp, but the lich can be drawn out of his fortress to fight in the swamp as soon as you come within range. Gweddry can lure enemy units into chasing him by moving Southwest into the mountains, thereby diverting many undead from contesting the river crossing. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process, though alternatively Gweddry can lure these too. Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.<br />
<br />
==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario. <br />
<br />
Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
The main reason to get here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and five Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first), but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.<br />
<br />
The regular Time of Day cycle does not apply here. Instead, dusk and night are twice as long as usual. The large accumulating mob of undead will mull around in the center until turn 7 or so before swarming in Gweddry's general direction. Prior to that you can 'pull' the mob North or South by relocating Gweddry or alternatively by moving decoy units closer to the center, so adjust your tactics accordingly. Most importantly, try to finish the mission quickly.<br />
<br />
''On easy'': This is still a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in position to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] My take on just getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East (and center). Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6 [?in which version?]. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.<br />
<br />
=== The Northern Outpost ===<br />
* '''Objectives''':<br />
** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.<br />
** Defeat the undead leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.<br />
** Horseman units can now be recruited.<br />
** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.<br />
<br />
This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.<br />
<br />
Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each.<br />
<br />
The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn will be busy with his special spell to reveal the outlaws for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the Southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a cavalryman/horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the Southwest.<br />
<br />
By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., cavalry and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, make sure you have several healthy units around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the Western side of the map flagging villages and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.<br />
<br />
Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse. When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.<br />
<br />
Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.<br />
<br />
Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assassination).<br />
<br />
[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.<br />
<br />
=== Two Paths ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.<br />
<br />
One option is going North on the very West side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.<br />
<br />
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the Northwest in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the Northwest to reach the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal cavalry charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be an easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Undead Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
<br />
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.<br />
<br />
A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.<br />
<br />
Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.<br />
<br />
You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
==== The Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:<br />
*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit<br />
*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units<br />
<br />
Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Orcish force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South. <br />
<br />
On Turn 2, the first contingent of Undead will appear to the South-East of your keep: A weaker leader (Revenant on Medium) "unpacks" a keep and recruits it full of units (on Medium these are L1 recruits). If Gweddry and Owaec are already in the water, you may find yourself pretty bloodied by the encounter; and the Revenant has Gold to spare for more recruiting.<br />
<br />
On Turn 8, the Undead are reinforced by a powerful Lich (on Medium) and a few leveled units (on Medium - two Revenants and a Bone Shooter) - and they get initiative, i.e. they get a round of action before you can attack them. Do you have units ready to take the blow? They might not be numerous, but they're quite deadly when ganging up on a unit of their choice. If, however, your units remain at a distance, the Lich will enter the keep and recruit...<br />
<br />
On the North bank, the Orcs and the Ogres are exchanging blows. Within a couple of turns it becomes apparent the Ogres are going to lose - but you want their leader alive. That means you either have to draw much of the Orcish forces to chase you into the river, or alternatively get Gweddry and Owaec across fast enough so that the Orcs aren't completely done with the Ogres (the Leader will most probably be the last one to die).<br />
<br />
So, when can you afford to send Gweddry and Owaec, and/or other units, up into the water? A slight tactical error in judgement can mean either numerous casualties by the undead, or alternatively loss of your potential Ogre ally.<br />
<br />
If you ''do'' manage to cross before the Ogre leader is dead, he will agrees to help you; you'll get the bonuses listed above and will skip the ''Training the Ogres'' scenario, proceeding directly to ''Xenophobia''.<br />
<br />
<br />
[Allefant]: I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight North from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the North. The Undead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the North side.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the Undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of Undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.<br />
<br />
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first Undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to Seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the Orcs enough to get across while the Undead behind you are not an issue. <br />
<br />
I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him with this strategy, but sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the Orcs South to solve this problem.<br />
<br />
[Hipparchos] Agreed this is the only way to save the ogre leader (all others are too slow). I played this several ways before deciding the easiest is to recruit/recall only units with 6+ movement (Horsemen, Cavalrymen, quick Mages and quick Spearmen) which move 2 hexes through the water. Send them immediately South to the Undead leader's keep and defeat the units there within the first few turns. Then occupy the keep and wait for the reinforcements while one Horseman rides West to take villages. With no keep, the reinforcements are small and easy to defeat. Then you have no problems to your rear as your fast units catch up to Oweac and cross the river. You'll take some hits on the far bank but should get through in time to keep the Ogres alive.<br />
<br />
=== Training the Ogres ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.<br />
<br />
<br />
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".<br />
<br />
Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). It's best to capture at least two.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Xenophobia ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.<br />
<br />
This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the North, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep).<br />
<br />
You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.<br />
<br />
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.<br />
<br />
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.<br />
<br />
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Cavalry, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.<br />
<br />
By the end of this scenario, it's very useful to have Gweddry at least on level 3, allowing you to use his leadership ability on other units like ogres (who reach their maximum at level 2). Leveling up a group of key units will also be very important for the upcoming scenario ''Captured'', where you won't be able to recruit, but a group of your most experienced veterans will have to fight their way out of a cave. You may want to prepare several mages and knights.<br />
<br />
=== Lake Vrug ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 30.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The stronghold provides 100 gold.<br />
<br />
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
There are three keeps, all North of the river. The troll leader has his keep on the Northeast (go to the right into the mountains directly after crossing the bridge). To find the other two keeps, go West right after crossing the river; if you stay close to the Southern line of mountains, you'll find the Gryphon keep pretty easily. Finally, there is a stronghold straight North from the Gryphons, and Dacyn must reach this fortress to complete the level.<br />
<br />
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and as many ogres as possible, because they are probably the most useful unit for this scenario. The reason is simple: the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily. You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead, although using that money for another mage or ogre may be a better investment.<br />
<br />
The action for this scenario can be divided into two phases. The first phase will be surviving the first onslaught of Gryphons and trolls coming your way. This will start around turn 4 with quite a number of Gryphons appearing from the Northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first Gryphon swoop out of the fog, watch out! This means many others are coming behind. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as Gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the Gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.<br />
<br />
Just when you thought you had the Gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of Gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away. Place these troopers on the grassland tiles on the edge of the river, so the trolls coming from the bridge will be forced to attack from unfavorable terrain for them (ice).<br />
<br />
Once you have dealt with this first wave of enemies, the remaining phase consists in crossing the river, finding the enemy leaders and finishing them off, which will be much easier in comparison. Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in this end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.<br />
<br />
[revolting_peasent] Starting with version 1.13, the Gryphon leader recruits Drakes: First Glider Drakes (for the onslaught), then Sky Drakes. The former can be pretty safely defeated by a half-HP Ogre, the latter - not really, even individually. So even one of these can be very troublesome. This is especially true if they somehow gets near Dacyn, which they seem to have an inclination to do.<br />
<br />
=== Captured ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.<br />
** A holy amulet to the South.<br />
<br />
Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. This group only needs to fight an orcish grunt and a few bats as they travel West, then South. Shortly after they encounter the orcish trash heap, one of your rescuers will don a disguise to sneak past the troll guards.<br />
<br />
The disguised unit can open a cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Your three heroes will also be freed, and either Dacyn or Gweddry can reach the final cell to release the last of your troops. You'll be surrounded by Troll Warriors, and unlikely to do enough damage to kill them in the first turn. Sacrifice some of your less experienced troops to block the trolls from reaching any important units. <br />
<br />
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the Southwest corner. There is a holy necklace in the Southeast. Preferably grab the holy amulet with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is).<br />
<br />
If you have a large group of recallable units, loses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for ''Evacuation'', the next scenario.<br />
<br />
=== Evacuation ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 12.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).<br />
<br />
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the South. If you finish by passing the bridge, all your units that are not on the South side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your un-recalled units! Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your un-recalled troops. <br />
<br />
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible" (at least on Hard) - but it is by no means impossible. You will, however, have to wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: It may be necessary to accept significant losses of higher- level troops. You should have a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario, with level 2 units with high experience and close to advancement being your best asset. <br />
<br />
Whichever objective you choose to pursue, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the (Level 3) Warrior Trolls: They can defeat and kill most of your single units within a single turn at night. Best fight them with Mages or arcane-damage-dealing cavalry. Your mounted units are well resistant to impact (30% for Horsemen/Knights, 40% for Cavalry/Dragoons, respectively) and can deal with trolls, especially Paladins, or mounted units with an amulet (-10% Troll resistance instead of +20%). Also, you _will_ run out of money here - either on Turn 1 or on Turn 2, so don't let that large keep make you think all of your buddies will be joining you like in the last scenario.<br />
<br />
Luckily, you can (versions 1.12.2, 1.13.4) lure out the Eastern and the Southern Orc Warlord leaders on Turn 1, and since their recruits can't move on that turn, they will both have opened themselves to be taken out during the next turn. Plan your Turn 1 recruiting and Turn 2 attack carefully, to have enough muscle to take out the leaders and enough brawn and speed not to expose the damaged units too much to the two keep-full's of recruits who will scream bloody murder (literally...). <br />
<br />
The Western Troll-Warrior-lead contingent cannot reach you in full force until turn 3 and (on Medium) may not attack all-out even then, so regardless of the leader lure gambit - deal as much damage as possible during the first day, while maintaining some reserve for defense during the night. <br />
<br />
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially if you're on Hard or short on gold. Run South with a sufficient amount of screening units and hopefully those units you want to try and evacuate (they shouldn't be slow ones). Focus on running the Engineer - using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable (sigh...). Engage the enemy sparingly, only at those points necessary to clear the way for the evacuee units, or where you see an opportunity to level-up and heal. With the large keep in this scenario you have no excuse to dilly-dally.<br />
<br />
On Hard, If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for leveling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Besieged'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.<br />
<br />
WanderingHero: While this scenario is cruel, its not as asinine as it appears. You've already beaten the hardest scenarios of the campaign, so you don't have much to worry about taking losses. Try saving a White Mage, and maybe a Knight that's close to Paladin or a Paladin; although even this is hardly essential. Your heavily armored units and able-bodied Ogres can be used to wall the enemy. Although the situation looks grim, you're actually near the end of the campaign, and the worst is behind you. You'll see the Checkered flag soon enough...<br />
<br />
=== The Drowned Plains ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
Khrakrahs is a level-4 Skeletal Dragon that will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the South). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.<br />
<br />
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units —preferrably using impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there. Magical attacks from your magi are also very effective against the dragon.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity for all the units with holy amulets you still have with you. Use them against the ambushers. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of your best anti-undead units, find and kill the dragon and reap the reward.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Approaching Weldyn ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
The objective is simple enough; Gweddry has to reach the castle occupied by Konrad II. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.<br />
<br />
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.<br />
<br />
=== The Council ===<br />
<br />
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.<br />
<br />
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.<br />
<br />
At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders (Liches) with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The Southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits Nightgaunts, the Southeastern Lich is the only one that recruits Blood Bats, and the Northern Lich is the only one that recruits Spectres.<br />
<br />
The time of-day cycle in this scenario is 3 times slower than usual, and it starts at sunset, so the first 3 turns are Dusk, and then it's night-time (first and second watch) during another half of the entire scenario, which is painful - literally, considering the damage the Undead will deal your troops. Fearless or Neutral-alignment units are important, as is careful use of your Mages of Light's Illumination (see also below).<br />
<br />
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the Liches and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the Northern keep.<br />
<br />
Typically, the backbone of your army will be Heavy Infantry track units, Mages, and your Mages of Light (Dacyn and hopefully at least another one). On the first turn, recall one of each, plus 3 Cavalry units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the cavalry to rob your allies of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the cavalry can run around to distract the enemy. Send your Heavy infantry types, Mages, and Mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: Arch Mages, Silver Mages, White Mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios.<br />
<br />
However, if you managed to get your forces off the lake Vrug island in ''Evacuation'' (without blowing up the bridge), it's likely you are now able to recall a good number of Level-3 units with arcane attacks and maybe you even have a couple of Ogres. If that's the case you stand a chance (on Medium and v1.13.4 anyway) to assassinate the Northern Lich before he runs out of money. The way to do it is instruct the Northwestern allied leader to attack the Northern Lich. Your units will set up in the fortified positions near the bridge due North, and in the villages - drawing some enemy units into the water and clearing one or two for your ally - while he, brilliant tactician that he is, sends his units blindly forward, North across the bridge and the stream to tackle the Lich's recruits head-on. This will bring the Weldyn units (mostly Mages probably) within range of the Lich himself, and he may come out for an attack - and into the water. If this happens (possibly on Turn 4 or 5) - make a gambit for his life: One unit can attack him from the bridge and one or two from the water. Of course these have to be arcane attacks, otherwise you're probably not going to kill him off; and apply Illumination to the attacker and maybe the Lich itself (i.e. make a Mage of Light one of the attackers). To complete the gambit, have some high-HP units defend the wounded attackers of the Lich from the side, so they don't get picked off easily the next round. Still, an L2 unit or even a Paladin is not a terrible loss in exchange for a Lich leader and his 100-gold-or-more in unrecruited units. <br />
<br />
... But it's more likely not to have such a convenient strike force, in which case you probably not be able to assassinate the Lich before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.<br />
<br />
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your cavalry. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now if you're in a bind (saving gold is a luxury in this level which would help you in 'Weldyn Besieged'). Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two Liches. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, cavalry, and/or silver Mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.<br />
<br />
For your main force, unless you have taken over the South-Western keep, you need to mind those invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that can be up to no good... they are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.<br />
<br />
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a Shock Trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a General up to lend Leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.<br />
<br />
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two to attack the remaining two Liches. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to ''Weldyn Besieged''.<br />
<br />
If you have one or two Silver Mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking. Make good use of Gweddry's leadership ability (he should be a Grand Marshal by now), and of Konrad's Sceptre of Fire to get rid of the most dangerous enemies coming your way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the scenario, you must choose between challenging Mal-Ravanal to a duel (''The Duel'') or defending Weldyn against the final Undead attack (''Weldyn Besieged''). ''Weldyn Besieged'' is intended as a challenging final scenario; players without a good recall list and sizable warchest will find ''The Duel'' much more accommodating.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== The Duel ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** You can only recruit for the first turn.<br />
<br />
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.<br />
<br />
Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.<br />
<br />
Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack.<br />
<br />
==== Weldyn Besieged ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.<br />
<br />
This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.<br />
<br />
A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheEasternInvasion&diff=70431TheEasternInvasion2023-01-27T05:26:43Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Escape Tunnel */</p>
<hr />
<div>:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''<br />
<br />
<br />
In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sargeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.<br />
<br />
As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign, since it contains quite a few surprises along the way, and at some points you will have to make choices that will have important repercussions for later scenarios. You may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios ''Captured'', ''Evacuation'' and ''Weldyn Under Attack'' in order to plan ahead.<br />
<br />
You will encounter different types of enemies, mostly undead units (especially towards the beginning and the end of the campaign), as well as orcs and trolls. Mages and Heavy Infantrymen will provide the backbone of your army. You'll probably want to level up at least one extra Mage of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages and Iron Maulers. You can also recruit Spearman, Cavalryman and Horseman units (the latter a few scenarios into the campaign), but their importance is perhaps less pronounced in many of the scenarios.<br />
<br />
You will encounter a few tough challenges along the way, so be prepared, and be careful assigning experience to your units, especially during the first few scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== The Outpost ===<br />
<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. All will produce skeletons and skeleton archers, but in addition the northernmost enemy will recruit walking corpses, the middle one will recruit bats, and the southern one will recruit bone shooters and revenants. <br />
<br />
On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead. On turn 10 (easy) or 12 (hard) Dacyn returns and points out a trap door to exit the level. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16). All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost and suddenly recruit a surge of new units the turn after Dacyn returns.<br />
<br />
There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 90% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks allow them to do great damage against skeletons, skeleton archers, revenants, and bone shooters, which will be the vast majority of your opponents' forces, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. They are even decent against bats, as they can usually kill them in a single strike and therefore nullify the effectiveness of their drain attacks. Walking corpses will give them a little trouble, but the northern leader usually doesn't recruit enough of them to be a major problem. <br />
<br />
Defensive approach #1: <br />
The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage. Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the Northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.<br />
<br />
Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.<br />
<br />
Defensive approach #2: <br />
The goal is to fall back and defend the Western bank of the river up through turn 9, then counterattack across the bridge on turns 10-11 so Gweddry is in position to immediately exit on turn 12. Recruit 4 HI and 2 magi on turn one, then keep recruiting more HI as often as you can up through turn 5. Use the magi and Dacyn to hold the central villages from bats while Gweddry recruits and your HI take up their positions on the far river bank. As darkness falls, you should abandon the villages and get your final units across the river as well. Most of the undead won't be able to reach your positions until dawn, when you'll have the advantage of daylight to slaughter anything crossing the river. This should destroy most of the first wave. By dusk, start preparing your forces to mass on the bridge, where they want to punch through any undead stragglers and reoccupy your keep on turn 11 for a final last stand. As soon as Dacyn reappears on turn 12, get Gweddry to the trap door before your survivors are overwhelmed.<br />
<br />
Offensive approach: <br />
recruit 6 HI and send them and Dacyn straight for the middle leader. Recruit another HI the following turn and send it after them. Your goal is to completely eliminate the central leader's forces before reinforcements can arrive, and then take him out by turn 6-7 to stop his recruitment. One big advantage of this is that he is the only leader who recruits bats, so once you take him out you don't have to worry about any more bats harassing your wounded and stealing your villages.<br />
<br />
After your 7 initial HI are on their way, keep Gweddry in the keep to recruit 2-3 additional HI who will defend the southwest villages against the eventual arrival of the southern leader's forces. Steal a kill with Gweddry when the opportunity presents itself. <br />
<br />
Then recruit what you want, ideally at least 1 more mage to start feeding xp to become another healer. Keep in mind that there's no early finish bonus, and with this strategy you should hold on to a lot of villages, so delay going for the trap door as long as possible to hoard gold and farm xp. <br />
<br />
The victory conditions include killing all enemy leaders, but this seems nearly impossible on the highest difficulty. If anyone has managed it, feel free to explain how you did it!<br />
<br />
=== Escape Tunnel ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Permanent holy amulet in the North.<br />
** Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast<br />
<br />
This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.<br />
<br />
Take some time to choose your supporting units, depending on which ones you want to level up the quickest. Heavy Infantry are excellent frontline units, but the downside is that they move very slowly in caves. However, since Gweddry is the only unit that ''has'' to get quickly to the far West, this might not be a big problem. You can also go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. One keep of units in total should easily be enough—there's also a convenient keep with one castle tile to recruit additional units in the middle of the map, in case you need it during the battle. You can save time by recruiting your faster units at your starting keep and your HI at the central keep, so they don't have to walk down the long tunnel to the front line. <br />
<br />
The map is quite small. A little East from your keep the path is forked into three directions: North is a small area with a holy amulet, East is the troll keep and South is the dwarven keep. These two last paths will merge again to the East, leading to the exit, where Gweddry needs to go. The dwarves are friendly and will help you fight your enemies. The trolls and undead are hostile to each other as well as to you and the dwarves. <br />
<br />
The holy amulet to the North is a very useful item, which will make all the attacks (melee and ranged) of the unit that picks it up of type ''arcane''—and, unlike in other campaigns, this holy amulet is permanent! Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the scenario ''The Crossing'', where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.<br />
<br />
Both your challenges and your tools in this scenario are bottlenecks. Troll whelps will clog up the narrow tunnel to your east, and the undead horde will try to flow through the narrow tunnel to your west. <br />
<br />
The simplest way through this scenario is through pure cowardice. Recruit 1-2 spearmen at your starting keep and run Gweddry straight for the amulet. Have Dacyn and the spearmen passively block the trolls in their eastern tunnel until Gweddry has the amulet, then pull everyone south into the dwarven section of the tunnels, leaving the dwarves to face the trolls alone. Leave one spearman at the village at 18.11 to block any undead who are following, and have the rest of your forces head east. Have Dacyn or another spearman grab the treasure at 35.8, while Gweddry follows the tunnel to the exit at 37.5. The advantage of this strategy is a big gold carryover due to spending almost none of your starting gold AND getting a big early finish bonus. The disadvantage is you will gain almost no xp, and if the undead get lucky and take out the troll leader VERY quickly, you might get stuck if some wraiths get into the eastern end of the tunnels before you. <br />
<br />
If you want to get more xp out of this scenario, you can either block the undead or outrun them, while you take on the trolls head on. To out-run them, you will need to break through the bottleneck of troll whelps by brute force. This will require some lvl 2 units from last scenario, ideally fearless shocktroopers and/or red mages. lvl 1 units alone will simply not be able to deal enough reliable damage each turn to kill all the whelps in the narrow tunnel before the undead catch up. Focus on doing as much damage as possible to the trolls each turn and finishing them off as quickly as possible to get around their regeneration. Once you break through the troll blockade, run for it, killing the troll leader in passing. This is easy because he is totally passive and will not attack you. Send a quick unit to grab the chest while gweddry heads for the door. <br />
<br />
If you don't have enough high damage-dealers to break through the trolls quickly enough, you can block the undead to buy more time. Leaving a sacrificial spearman/HI on the village at 7.7 can buy you an extra 1-2 turns by itself if it gets lucky. You can also establish a defensive line anchored by the hills at 12.5 and the one castle tile of the central keep. Good use of healers and rotating wounded units, along with playing relatively passively (i.e. not attacking so you won't take any retaliation damage), can allow 4-5 spearmen/HI to hold that line for a very long time while the rest of your forces cooperate with the dwarves to get through the trolls.<br />
<br />
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20/18/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.<br />
<br />
In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West (Mal-Skraat) will take you to the ''Elven Alliance'' scenario, while the one to the West (Mal-Kallat) takes you to ''The Undead Border Patrol''.<br />
<br />
Going West is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a loyal Paladin and several Knights.<br />
<br />
Firstly, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep: either shoot him with Dacyn's ranged and Gweddry's melee attacks for a 1-turn kill, or attack using melee only to wound him (Dacyn is likelier to emerge less wounded this way). If you don't kill him the first turn, Mal-Tar recruits 3 soulless then retreats to the nearby village to heal. But that gives you more easy xp to farm... so food for thought. <br />
<br />
You will be fighting a mix of skeletons & skeleton archers, along with skeleton riders and soulless (in the West) and vampire bats and ghouls (in the West). So recruiting Heavy Infantry and Magi work well (and recall whomever you gave the amulet to in the previous scenario), plus a single spearman or cavalry to grab villages and/or act as expendable blocker if you can't afford a last HI/mage. Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village to heal ASAP, as he will be the core mobile healer of your army unless you have another white mage. <br />
<br />
Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups. <br />
<br />
On easy or medium difficulty the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units with Dacyn positioned at the epicenter of your assault so he can heal the wounded. If you move quickly you should only need to fight the attackers from one leader. Of course you can have some of your units double back to engage the second set. <br />
<br />
On hard difficulty going West, the bats will catch up mid-battle and try to snipe your wounded units in the night. On hard heading West, be wary of the skeleton riders catching up from behind and being caught between the two main undead forces. Luckily the mix of bats and the single-path out of the Western swamp means those forces arrive fairly dispersed. Aggressively pressing your attack Westward should take them out in small batches so when the Western forces catch up you won't have to fight too many at once.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Elven Alliance ====<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear near the elf leader on turn 6.<br />
<br />
Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.<br />
<br />
Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.<br />
<br />
There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.<br />
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.<br />
<br />
Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.<br />
<br />
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. There is a Dark Sorcerer in the Northwest corner and a Lich in the South-West corner. Defeating the Lich (Mal-Telnarad) will give you the chance to go to ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging but rewarding scenario, while defeating the sorcerer (Mal-Skraat) is easier, and takes you directly to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The terrain is more open and the necromancer has less gold to recruit with than the lich. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance—you may recruit a couple of suicide cavalrymen to distract bats and grab distant towns. One might even get enough XP this way to be worth recalling in later scenarios. Because of the open terrain, it is recommended to use mostly heavy infantry and your holy amulet unit on this level backed up by a few magi. As in most scenarios against undead, white magi are very useful for their arcane attack as well as mobile healers. Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand; this gives you a significant advantage.<br />
<br />
If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp, but the lich can be drawn out of his fortress to fight in the swamp as soon as you come within range. Gweddry can lure enemy units into chasing him by moving Southwest into the mountains, thereby diverting many undead from contesting the river crossing. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process, though alternatively Gweddry can lure these too. Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.<br />
<br />
==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario. <br />
<br />
Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
The main reason to get here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and five Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first), but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.<br />
<br />
The regular Time of Day cycle does not apply here. Instead, dusk and night are twice as long as usual. The large accumulating mob of undead will mull around in the center until turn 7 or so before swarming in Gweddry's general direction. Prior to that you can 'pull' the mob North or South by relocating Gweddry or alternatively by moving decoy units closer to the center, so adjust your tactics accordingly. Most importantly, try to finish the mission quickly.<br />
<br />
''On easy'': This is still a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in position to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] My take on just getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East (and center). Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6 [?in which version?]. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.<br />
<br />
=== The Northern Outpost ===<br />
* '''Objectives''':<br />
** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.<br />
** Defeat the undead leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.<br />
** Horseman units can now be recruited.<br />
** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.<br />
<br />
This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.<br />
<br />
Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each.<br />
<br />
The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn will be busy with his special spell to reveal the outlaws for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the Southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a cavalryman/horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the Southwest.<br />
<br />
By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., cavalry and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, make sure you have several healthy units around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the Western side of the map flagging villages and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.<br />
<br />
Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse. When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.<br />
<br />
Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.<br />
<br />
Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assassination).<br />
<br />
[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.<br />
<br />
=== Two Paths ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.<br />
<br />
One option is going North on the very West side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.<br />
<br />
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the Northwest in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the Northwest to reach the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal cavalry charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be an easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Undead Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
<br />
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.<br />
<br />
A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.<br />
<br />
Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.<br />
<br />
You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
==== The Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:<br />
*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit<br />
*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units<br />
<br />
Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Orcish force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South. <br />
<br />
On Turn 2, the first contingent of Undead will appear to the South-East of your keep: A weaker leader (Revenant on Medium) "unpacks" a keep and recruits it full of units (on Medium these are L1 recruits). If Gweddry and Owaec are already in the water, you may find yourself pretty bloodied by the encounter; and the Revenant has Gold to spare for more recruiting.<br />
<br />
On Turn 8, the Undead are reinforced by a powerful Lich (on Medium) and a few leveled units (on Medium - two Revenants and a Bone Shooter) - and they get initiative, i.e. they get a round of action before you can attack them. Do you have units ready to take the blow? They might not be numerous, but they're quite deadly when ganging up on a unit of their choice. If, however, your units remain at a distance, the Lich will enter the keep and recruit...<br />
<br />
On the North bank, the Orcs and the Ogres are exchanging blows. Within a couple of turns it becomes apparent the Ogres are going to lose - but you want their leader alive. That means you either have to draw much of the Orcish forces to chase you into the river, or alternatively get Gweddry and Owaec across fast enough so that the Orcs aren't completely done with the Ogres (the Leader will most probably be the last one to die).<br />
<br />
So, when can you afford to send Gweddry and Owaec, and/or other units, up into the water? A slight tactical error in judgement can mean either numerous casualties by the undead, or alternatively loss of your potential Ogre ally.<br />
<br />
If you ''do'' manage to cross before the Ogre leader is dead, he will agrees to help you; you'll get the bonuses listed above and will skip the ''Training the Ogres'' scenario, proceeding directly to ''Xenophobia''.<br />
<br />
<br />
[Allefant]: I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight North from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the North. The Undead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the North side.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the Undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of Undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.<br />
<br />
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first Undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to Seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the Orcs enough to get across while the Undead behind you are not an issue. <br />
<br />
I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him with this strategy, but sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the Orcs South to solve this problem.<br />
<br />
[Hipparchos] Agreed this is the only way to save the ogre leader (all others are too slow). I played this several ways before deciding the easiest is to recruit/recall only units with 6+ movement (Horsemen, Cavalrymen, quick Mages and quick Spearmen) which move 2 hexes through the water. Send them immediately South to the Undead leader's keep and defeat the units there within the first few turns. Then occupy the keep and wait for the reinforcements while one Horseman rides West to take villages. With no keep, the reinforcements are small and easy to defeat. Then you have no problems to your rear as your fast units catch up to Oweac and cross the river. You'll take some hits on the far bank but should get through in time to keep the Ogres alive.<br />
<br />
=== Training the Ogres ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.<br />
<br />
<br />
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".<br />
<br />
Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). It's best to capture at least two.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Xenophobia ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.<br />
<br />
This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the North, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep).<br />
<br />
You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.<br />
<br />
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.<br />
<br />
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.<br />
<br />
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Cavalry, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.<br />
<br />
By the end of this scenario, it's very useful to have Gweddry at least on level 3, allowing you to use his leadership ability on other units like ogres (who reach their maximum at level 2). Leveling up a group of key units will also be very important for the upcoming scenario ''Captured'', where you won't be able to recruit, but a group of your most experienced veterans will have to fight their way out of a cave. You may want to prepare several mages and knights.<br />
<br />
=== Lake Vrug ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 30.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The stronghold provides 100 gold.<br />
<br />
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
There are three keeps, all North of the river. The troll leader has his keep on the Northeast (go to the right into the mountains directly after crossing the bridge). To find the other two keeps, go West right after crossing the river; if you stay close to the Southern line of mountains, you'll find the Gryphon keep pretty easily. Finally, there is a stronghold straight North from the Gryphons, and Dacyn must reach this fortress to complete the level.<br />
<br />
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and as many ogres as possible, because they are probably the most useful unit for this scenario. The reason is simple: the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily. You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead, although using that money for another mage or ogre may be a better investment.<br />
<br />
The action for this scenario can be divided into two phases. The first phase will be surviving the first onslaught of Gryphons and trolls coming your way. This will start around turn 4 with quite a number of Gryphons appearing from the Northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first Gryphon swoop out of the fog, watch out! This means many others are coming behind. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as Gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the Gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.<br />
<br />
Just when you thought you had the Gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of Gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away. Place these troopers on the grassland tiles on the edge of the river, so the trolls coming from the bridge will be forced to attack from unfavorable terrain for them (ice).<br />
<br />
Once you have dealt with this first wave of enemies, the remaining phase consists in crossing the river, finding the enemy leaders and finishing them off, which will be much easier in comparison. Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in this end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.<br />
<br />
[revolting_peasent] Starting with version 1.13, the Gryphon leader recruits Drakes: First Glider Drakes (for the onslaught), then Sky Drakes. The former can be pretty safely defeated by a half-HP Ogre, the latter - not really, even individually. So even one of these can be very troublesome. This is especially true if they somehow gets near Dacyn, which they seem to have an inclination to do.<br />
<br />
=== Captured ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.<br />
** A holy amulet to the South.<br />
<br />
Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. This group only needs to fight an orcish grunt and a few bats as they travel West, then South. Shortly after they encounter the orcish trash heap, one of your rescuers will don a disguise to sneak past the troll guards.<br />
<br />
The disguised unit can open a cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Your three heroes will also be freed, and either Dacyn or Gweddry can reach the final cell to release the last of your troops. You'll be surrounded by Troll Warriors, and unlikely to do enough damage to kill them in the first turn. Sacrifice some of your less experienced troops to block the trolls from reaching any important units. <br />
<br />
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the Southwest corner. There is a holy necklace in the Southeast. Preferably grab the holy amulet with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is).<br />
<br />
If you have a large group of recallable units, loses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for ''Evacuation'', the next scenario.<br />
<br />
=== Evacuation ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 12.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).<br />
<br />
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the South. If you finish by passing the bridge, all your units that are not on the South side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your un-recalled units! Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your un-recalled troops. <br />
<br />
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible" (at least on Hard) - but it is by no means impossible. You will, however, have to wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: It may be necessary to accept significant losses of higher- level troops. You should have a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario, with level 2 units with high experience and close to advancement being your best asset. <br />
<br />
Whichever objective you choose to pursue, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the (Level 3) Warrior Trolls: They can defeat and kill most of your single units within a single turn at night. Best fight them with Mages or arcane-damage-dealing cavalry. Your mounted units are well resistant to impact (30% for Horsemen/Knights, 40% for Cavalry/Dragoons, respectively) and can deal with trolls, especially Paladins, or mounted units with an amulet (-10% Troll resistance instead of +20%). Also, you _will_ run out of money here - either on Turn 1 or on Turn 2, so don't let that large keep make you think all of your buddies will be joining you like in the last scenario.<br />
<br />
Luckily, you can (versions 1.12.2, 1.13.4) lure out the Eastern and the Southern Orc Warlord leaders on Turn 1, and since their recruits can't move on that turn, they will both have opened themselves to be taken out during the next turn. Plan your Turn 1 recruiting and Turn 2 attack carefully, to have enough muscle to take out the leaders and enough brawn and speed not to expose the damaged units too much to the two keep-full's of recruits who will scream bloody murder (literally...). <br />
<br />
The Western Troll-Warrior-lead contingent cannot reach you in full force until turn 3 and (on Medium) may not attack all-out even then, so regardless of the leader lure gambit - deal as much damage as possible during the first day, while maintaining some reserve for defense during the night. <br />
<br />
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially if you're on Hard or short on gold. Run South with a sufficient amount of screening units and hopefully those units you want to try and evacuate (they shouldn't be slow ones). Focus on running the Engineer - using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable (sigh...). Engage the enemy sparingly, only at those points necessary to clear the way for the evacuee units, or where you see an opportunity to level-up and heal. With the large keep in this scenario you have no excuse to dilly-dally.<br />
<br />
On Hard, If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for leveling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Besieged'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.<br />
<br />
WanderingHero: While this scenario is cruel, its not as asinine as it appears. You've already beaten the hardest scenarios of the campaign, so you don't have much to worry about taking losses. Try saving a White Mage, and maybe a Knight that's close to Paladin or a Paladin; although even this is hardly essential. Your heavily armored units and able-bodied Ogres can be used to wall the enemy. Although the situation looks grim, you're actually near the end of the campaign, and the worst is behind you. You'll see the Checkered flag soon enough...<br />
<br />
=== The Drowned Plains ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
Khrakrahs is a level-4 Skeletal Dragon that will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the South). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.<br />
<br />
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units —preferrably using impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there. Magical attacks from your magi are also very effective against the dragon.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity for all the units with holy amulets you still have with you. Use them against the ambushers. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of your best anti-undead units, find and kill the dragon and reap the reward.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Approaching Weldyn ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
The objective is simple enough; Gweddry has to reach the castle occupied by Konrad II. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.<br />
<br />
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.<br />
<br />
=== The Council ===<br />
<br />
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.<br />
<br />
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.<br />
<br />
At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders (Liches) with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The Southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits Nightgaunts, the Southeastern Lich is the only one that recruits Blood Bats, and the Northern Lich is the only one that recruits Spectres.<br />
<br />
The time of-day cycle in this scenario is 3 times slower than usual, and it starts at sunset, so the first 3 turns are Dusk, and then it's night-time (first and second watch) during another half of the entire scenario, which is painful - literally, considering the damage the Undead will deal your troops. Fearless or Neutral-alignment units are important, as is careful use of your Mages of Light's Illumination (see also below).<br />
<br />
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the Liches and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the Northern keep.<br />
<br />
Typically, the backbone of your army will be Heavy Infantry track units, Mages, and your Mages of Light (Dacyn and hopefully at least another one). On the first turn, recall one of each, plus 3 Cavalry units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the cavalry to rob your allies of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the cavalry can run around to distract the enemy. Send your Heavy infantry types, Mages, and Mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: Arch Mages, Silver Mages, White Mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios.<br />
<br />
However, if you managed to get your forces off the lake Vrug island in ''Evacuation'' (without blowing up the bridge), it's likely you are now able to recall a good number of Level-3 units with arcane attacks and maybe you even have a couple of Ogres. If that's the case you stand a chance (on Medium and v1.13.4 anyway) to assassinate the Northern Lich before he runs out of money. The way to do it is instruct the Northwestern allied leader to attack the Northern Lich. Your units will set up in the fortified positions near the bridge due North, and in the villages - drawing some enemy units into the water and clearing one or two for your ally - while he, brilliant tactician that he is, sends his units blindly forward, North across the bridge and the stream to tackle the Lich's recruits head-on. This will bring the Weldyn units (mostly Mages probably) within range of the Lich himself, and he may come out for an attack - and into the water. If this happens (possibly on Turn 4 or 5) - make a gambit for his life: One unit can attack him from the bridge and one or two from the water. Of course these have to be arcane attacks, otherwise you're probably not going to kill him off; and apply Illumination to the attacker and maybe the Lich itself (i.e. make a Mage of Light one of the attackers). To complete the gambit, have some high-HP units defend the wounded attackers of the Lich from the side, so they don't get picked off easily the next round. Still, an L2 unit or even a Paladin is not a terrible loss in exchange for a Lich leader and his 100-gold-or-more in unrecruited units. <br />
<br />
... But it's more likely not to have such a convenient strike force, in which case you probably not be able to assassinate the Lich before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.<br />
<br />
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your cavalry. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now if you're in a bind (saving gold is a luxury in this level which would help you in 'Weldyn Besieged'). Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two Liches. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, cavalry, and/or silver Mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.<br />
<br />
For your main force, unless you have taken over the South-Western keep, you need to mind those invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that can be up to no good... they are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.<br />
<br />
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a Shock Trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a General up to lend Leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.<br />
<br />
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two to attack the remaining two Liches. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to ''Weldyn Besieged''.<br />
<br />
If you have one or two Silver Mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking. Make good use of Gweddry's leadership ability (he should be a Grand Marshal by now), and of Konrad's Sceptre of Fire to get rid of the most dangerous enemies coming your way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the scenario, you must choose between challenging Mal-Ravanal to a duel (''The Duel'') or defending Weldyn against the final Undead attack (''Weldyn Besieged''). ''Weldyn Besieged'' is intended as a challenging final scenario; players without a good recall list and sizable warchest will find ''The Duel'' much more accommodating.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== The Duel ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** You can only recruit for the first turn.<br />
<br />
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.<br />
<br />
Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.<br />
<br />
Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack.<br />
<br />
==== Weldyn Besieged ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.<br />
<br />
This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.<br />
<br />
A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheEasternInvasion&diff=70430TheEasternInvasion2023-01-27T03:14:58Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Outpost */</p>
<hr />
<div>:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''<br />
<br />
<br />
In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sargeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.<br />
<br />
As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign, since it contains quite a few surprises along the way, and at some points you will have to make choices that will have important repercussions for later scenarios. You may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios ''Captured'', ''Evacuation'' and ''Weldyn Under Attack'' in order to plan ahead.<br />
<br />
You will encounter different types of enemies, mostly undead units (especially towards the beginning and the end of the campaign), as well as orcs and trolls. Mages and Heavy Infantrymen will provide the backbone of your army. You'll probably want to level up at least one extra Mage of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages and Iron Maulers. You can also recruit Spearman, Cavalryman and Horseman units (the latter a few scenarios into the campaign), but their importance is perhaps less pronounced in many of the scenarios.<br />
<br />
You will encounter a few tough challenges along the way, so be prepared, and be careful assigning experience to your units, especially during the first few scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== The Outpost ===<br />
<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. All will produce skeletons and skeleton archers, but in addition the northernmost enemy will recruit walking corpses, the middle one will recruit bats, and the southern one will recruit bone shooters and revenants. <br />
<br />
On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead. On turn 10 (easy) or 12 (hard) Dacyn returns and points out a trap door to exit the level. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16). All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost and suddenly recruit a surge of new units the turn after Dacyn returns.<br />
<br />
There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 90% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks allow them to do great damage against skeletons, skeleton archers, revenants, and bone shooters, which will be the vast majority of your opponents' forces, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. They are even decent against bats, as they can usually kill them in a single strike and therefore nullify the effectiveness of their drain attacks. Walking corpses will give them a little trouble, but the northern leader usually doesn't recruit enough of them to be a major problem. <br />
<br />
Defensive approach #1: <br />
The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage. Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the Northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.<br />
<br />
Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.<br />
<br />
Defensive approach #2: <br />
The goal is to fall back and defend the Western bank of the river up through turn 9, then counterattack across the bridge on turns 10-11 so Gweddry is in position to immediately exit on turn 12. Recruit 4 HI and 2 magi on turn one, then keep recruiting more HI as often as you can up through turn 5. Use the magi and Dacyn to hold the central villages from bats while Gweddry recruits and your HI take up their positions on the far river bank. As darkness falls, you should abandon the villages and get your final units across the river as well. Most of the undead won't be able to reach your positions until dawn, when you'll have the advantage of daylight to slaughter anything crossing the river. This should destroy most of the first wave. By dusk, start preparing your forces to mass on the bridge, where they want to punch through any undead stragglers and reoccupy your keep on turn 11 for a final last stand. As soon as Dacyn reappears on turn 12, get Gweddry to the trap door before your survivors are overwhelmed.<br />
<br />
Offensive approach: <br />
recruit 6 HI and send them and Dacyn straight for the middle leader. Recruit another HI the following turn and send it after them. Your goal is to completely eliminate the central leader's forces before reinforcements can arrive, and then take him out by turn 6-7 to stop his recruitment. One big advantage of this is that he is the only leader who recruits bats, so once you take him out you don't have to worry about any more bats harassing your wounded and stealing your villages.<br />
<br />
After your 7 initial HI are on their way, keep Gweddry in the keep to recruit 2-3 additional HI who will defend the southwest villages against the eventual arrival of the southern leader's forces. Steal a kill with Gweddry when the opportunity presents itself. <br />
<br />
Then recruit what you want, ideally at least 1 more mage to start feeding xp to become another healer. Keep in mind that there's no early finish bonus, and with this strategy you should hold on to a lot of villages, so delay going for the trap door as long as possible to hoard gold and farm xp. <br />
<br />
The victory conditions include killing all enemy leaders, but this seems nearly impossible on the highest difficulty. If anyone has managed it, feel free to explain how you did it!<br />
<br />
=== Escape Tunnel ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Permanent holy amulet in the North.<br />
** Treasure of 200 gold in Southeast (50 in 1.13).<br />
<br />
This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.<br />
<br />
Take some time to choose your supporting units, depending on which ones you want to level up the quickest. Heavy Infantry are excellent frontline units, but the downside is that they move very slowly in caves. However, since Gweddry is the only unit that ''has'' to get quickly to the far West, this might not be a big problem. You can also go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. One keep of units in total should easily be enough—there's also a convenient keep with one castle tile to recruit additional units in the middle of the map, in case you need it during the battle.<br />
<br />
The map is quite small. A little West from your keep the path is forked into three directions: North is a small area with a holy amulet, West is the troll keep and South is the dwarven keep. These two last paths will merge again to the West, leading to the exit, where Gweddry needs to go. The dwarves are friendly and will help you fight your enemies.<br />
<br />
Given that you will probably be using inexperienced units, it's perhaps best to avoid going directly into the troll keep, but you can hold your position near the crossroads, on the Southern path, where you can easily witness a lot of action between trolls, dwarves and undead (who are following you and show up on turn 6 from the West). The different armies will all fight each other. If you want to take a defensive stance, after having moved all your units South position one strong unit (a spearman or HI) at the end of the path leading South (so only one unit a turn can attack him) and position the White Mage right behind him to heal it every turn. These two units should easily keep of the enemies following you until the end of the scenario.<br />
<br />
The holy amulet to the North is a very useful item, which will make all the attacks (melee and ranged) of the unit that picks it up of type ''arcane''—and, unlike in other campaigns, this holy amulet is permanent! Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the scenario ''The Crossing'', where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.<br />
<br />
Move Gweddry to the Northeast escorted by other units, to help him fight individual trolls if necessary, but before moving him to the end of the cave (which ends the level) send one of your units to the cave South–West, past the funny signpost warning you of the troll hole. In the cave you will discover a chest containing a troll treasure amounting to 200 gold (or 50 in 1.13).<br />
<br />
[Thrash: Alternately, I used predominately Heavy Infantry on this level. I found (on medium) they were tough enough to hold the central cave and pretty much beat the trolls into submission long enough for Gweddry to run North to the the amulet and then cover his retreat South, only then recruiting a mage when the troll numbers were lower. With other units, I had problems with the trolls overrunning them and getting Gweddry trapped to the North. Also a heavy infantry in the village by your starting fort will hold off the undead for a long time.]<br />
<br />
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20/18/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.<br />
<br />
In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West (Mal-Skraat) will take you to the ''Elven Alliance'' scenario, while the one to the West (Mal-Kallat) takes you to ''The Undead Border Patrol''.<br />
<br />
Going West is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a loyal Paladin and several Knights.<br />
<br />
Firstly, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep: either shoot him with Dacyn's ranged and Gweddry's melee attacks for a 1-turn kill, or attack using melee only to wound him (Dacyn is likelier to emerge less wounded this way). If you don't kill him the first turn, Mal-Tar recruits 3 soulless then retreats to the nearby village to heal. But that gives you more easy xp to farm... so food for thought. <br />
<br />
You will be fighting a mix of skeletons & skeleton archers, along with skeleton riders and soulless (in the West) and vampire bats and ghouls (in the West). So recruiting Heavy Infantry and Magi work well (and recall whomever you gave the amulet to in the previous scenario), plus a single spearman or cavalry to grab villages and/or act as expendable blocker if you can't afford a last HI/mage. Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village to heal ASAP, as he will be the core mobile healer of your army unless you have another white mage. <br />
<br />
Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups. <br />
<br />
On easy or medium difficulty the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units with Dacyn positioned at the epicenter of your assault so he can heal the wounded. If you move quickly you should only need to fight the attackers from one leader. Of course you can have some of your units double back to engage the second set. <br />
<br />
On hard difficulty going West, the bats will catch up mid-battle and try to snipe your wounded units in the night. On hard heading West, be wary of the skeleton riders catching up from behind and being caught between the two main undead forces. Luckily the mix of bats and the single-path out of the Western swamp means those forces arrive fairly dispersed. Aggressively pressing your attack Westward should take them out in small batches so when the Western forces catch up you won't have to fight too many at once.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Elven Alliance ====<br />
* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
<br />
The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear near the elf leader on turn 6.<br />
<br />
Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.<br />
<br />
Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.<br />
<br />
There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.<br />
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.<br />
<br />
Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.<br />
<br />
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. There is a Dark Sorcerer in the Northwest corner and a Lich in the South-West corner. Defeating the Lich (Mal-Telnarad) will give you the chance to go to ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging but rewarding scenario, while defeating the sorcerer (Mal-Skraat) is easier, and takes you directly to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The terrain is more open and the necromancer has less gold to recruit with than the lich. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance—you may recruit a couple of suicide cavalrymen to distract bats and grab distant towns. One might even get enough XP this way to be worth recalling in later scenarios. Because of the open terrain, it is recommended to use mostly heavy infantry and your holy amulet unit on this level backed up by a few magi. As in most scenarios against undead, white magi are very useful for their arcane attack as well as mobile healers. Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand; this gives you a significant advantage.<br />
<br />
If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp, but the lich can be drawn out of his fortress to fight in the swamp as soon as you come within range. Gweddry can lure enemy units into chasing him by moving Southwest into the mountains, thereby diverting many undead from contesting the river crossing. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process, though alternatively Gweddry can lure these too. Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.<br />
<br />
==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 26.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario. <br />
<br />
Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
The main reason to get here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and five Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first), but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.<br />
<br />
The regular Time of Day cycle does not apply here. Instead, dusk and night are twice as long as usual. The large accumulating mob of undead will mull around in the center until turn 7 or so before swarming in Gweddry's general direction. Prior to that you can 'pull' the mob North or South by relocating Gweddry or alternatively by moving decoy units closer to the center, so adjust your tactics accordingly. Most importantly, try to finish the mission quickly.<br />
<br />
''On easy'': This is still a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in position to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to ''The Northern Outpost''.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] My take on just getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East (and center). Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6 [?in which version?]. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.<br />
<br />
=== The Northern Outpost ===<br />
* '''Objectives''':<br />
** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.<br />
** Defeat the undead leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 20.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.<br />
** Horseman units can now be recruited.<br />
** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.<br />
<br />
This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.<br />
<br />
Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each.<br />
<br />
The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn will be busy with his special spell to reveal the outlaws for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the Southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a cavalryman/horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the Southwest.<br />
<br />
By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., cavalry and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, make sure you have several healthy units around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the Western side of the map flagging villages and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.<br />
<br />
Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse. When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.<br />
<br />
Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.<br />
<br />
Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assassination).<br />
<br />
[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.<br />
<br />
=== Two Paths ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.<br />
<br />
You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.<br />
<br />
One option is going North on the very West side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.<br />
<br />
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the Northwest in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the Northwest to reach the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal cavalry charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be an easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== Undead Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
<br />
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.<br />
<br />
A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.<br />
<br />
Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.<br />
<br />
You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.<br />
<br />
==== The Crossing ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:<br />
*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit<br />
*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units<br />
<br />
Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Orcish force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South. <br />
<br />
On Turn 2, the first contingent of Undead will appear to the South-East of your keep: A weaker leader (Revenant on Medium) "unpacks" a keep and recruits it full of units (on Medium these are L1 recruits). If Gweddry and Owaec are already in the water, you may find yourself pretty bloodied by the encounter; and the Revenant has Gold to spare for more recruiting.<br />
<br />
On Turn 8, the Undead are reinforced by a powerful Lich (on Medium) and a few leveled units (on Medium - two Revenants and a Bone Shooter) - and they get initiative, i.e. they get a round of action before you can attack them. Do you have units ready to take the blow? They might not be numerous, but they're quite deadly when ganging up on a unit of their choice. If, however, your units remain at a distance, the Lich will enter the keep and recruit...<br />
<br />
On the North bank, the Orcs and the Ogres are exchanging blows. Within a couple of turns it becomes apparent the Ogres are going to lose - but you want their leader alive. That means you either have to draw much of the Orcish forces to chase you into the river, or alternatively get Gweddry and Owaec across fast enough so that the Orcs aren't completely done with the Ogres (the Leader will most probably be the last one to die).<br />
<br />
So, when can you afford to send Gweddry and Owaec, and/or other units, up into the water? A slight tactical error in judgement can mean either numerous casualties by the undead, or alternatively loss of your potential Ogre ally.<br />
<br />
If you ''do'' manage to cross before the Ogre leader is dead, he will agrees to help you; you'll get the bonuses listed above and will skip the ''Training the Ogres'' scenario, proceeding directly to ''Xenophobia''.<br />
<br />
<br />
[Allefant]: I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight North from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the North. The Undead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the North side.<br />
<br />
[Thrash] Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the Undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of Undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.<br />
<br />
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first Undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to Seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the Orcs enough to get across while the Undead behind you are not an issue. <br />
<br />
I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him with this strategy, but sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the Orcs South to solve this problem.<br />
<br />
[Hipparchos] Agreed this is the only way to save the ogre leader (all others are too slow). I played this several ways before deciding the easiest is to recruit/recall only units with 6+ movement (Horsemen, Cavalrymen, quick Mages and quick Spearmen) which move 2 hexes through the water. Send them immediately South to the Undead leader's keep and defeat the units there within the first few turns. Then occupy the keep and wait for the reinforcements while one Horseman rides West to take villages. With no keep, the reinforcements are small and easy to defeat. Then you have no problems to your rear as your fast units catch up to Oweac and cross the river. You'll take some hits on the far bank but should get through in time to keep the Ogres alive.<br />
<br />
=== Training the Ogres ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.<br />
<br />
<br />
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".<br />
<br />
Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). It's best to capture at least two.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Xenophobia ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.<br />
<br />
This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the North, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep).<br />
<br />
You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.<br />
<br />
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.<br />
<br />
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.<br />
<br />
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Cavalry, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.<br />
<br />
By the end of this scenario, it's very useful to have Gweddry at least on level 3, allowing you to use his leadership ability on other units like ogres (who reach their maximum at level 2). Leveling up a group of key units will also be very important for the upcoming scenario ''Captured'', where you won't be able to recruit, but a group of your most experienced veterans will have to fight their way out of a cave. You may want to prepare several mages and knights.<br />
<br />
=== Lake Vrug ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 30.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** The stronghold provides 100 gold.<br />
<br />
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
There are three keeps, all North of the river. The troll leader has his keep on the Northeast (go to the right into the mountains directly after crossing the bridge). To find the other two keeps, go West right after crossing the river; if you stay close to the Southern line of mountains, you'll find the Gryphon keep pretty easily. Finally, there is a stronghold straight North from the Gryphons, and Dacyn must reach this fortress to complete the level.<br />
<br />
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and as many ogres as possible, because they are probably the most useful unit for this scenario. The reason is simple: the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily. You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead, although using that money for another mage or ogre may be a better investment.<br />
<br />
The action for this scenario can be divided into two phases. The first phase will be surviving the first onslaught of Gryphons and trolls coming your way. This will start around turn 4 with quite a number of Gryphons appearing from the Northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first Gryphon swoop out of the fog, watch out! This means many others are coming behind. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as Gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the Gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.<br />
<br />
Just when you thought you had the Gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of Gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away. Place these troopers on the grassland tiles on the edge of the river, so the trolls coming from the bridge will be forced to attack from unfavorable terrain for them (ice).<br />
<br />
Once you have dealt with this first wave of enemies, the remaining phase consists in crossing the river, finding the enemy leaders and finishing them off, which will be much easier in comparison. Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in this end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.<br />
<br />
[revolting_peasent] Starting with version 1.13, the Gryphon leader recruits Drakes: First Glider Drakes (for the onslaught), then Sky Drakes. The former can be pretty safely defeated by a half-HP Ogre, the latter - not really, even individually. So even one of these can be very troublesome. This is especially true if they somehow gets near Dacyn, which they seem to have an inclination to do.<br />
<br />
=== Captured ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.<br />
** A holy amulet to the South.<br />
<br />
Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. This group only needs to fight an orcish grunt and a few bats as they travel West, then South. Shortly after they encounter the orcish trash heap, one of your rescuers will don a disguise to sneak past the troll guards.<br />
<br />
The disguised unit can open a cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Your three heroes will also be freed, and either Dacyn or Gweddry can reach the final cell to release the last of your troops. You'll be surrounded by Troll Warriors, and unlikely to do enough damage to kill them in the first turn. Sacrifice some of your less experienced troops to block the trolls from reaching any important units. <br />
<br />
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the Southwest corner. There is a holy necklace in the Southeast. Preferably grab the holy amulet with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is).<br />
<br />
If you have a large group of recallable units, loses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for ''Evacuation'', the next scenario.<br />
<br />
=== Evacuation ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 12.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).<br />
<br />
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the South. If you finish by passing the bridge, all your units that are not on the South side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your un-recalled units! Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your un-recalled troops. <br />
<br />
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible" (at least on Hard) - but it is by no means impossible. You will, however, have to wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: It may be necessary to accept significant losses of higher- level troops. You should have a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario, with level 2 units with high experience and close to advancement being your best asset. <br />
<br />
Whichever objective you choose to pursue, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the (Level 3) Warrior Trolls: They can defeat and kill most of your single units within a single turn at night. Best fight them with Mages or arcane-damage-dealing cavalry. Your mounted units are well resistant to impact (30% for Horsemen/Knights, 40% for Cavalry/Dragoons, respectively) and can deal with trolls, especially Paladins, or mounted units with an amulet (-10% Troll resistance instead of +20%). Also, you _will_ run out of money here - either on Turn 1 or on Turn 2, so don't let that large keep make you think all of your buddies will be joining you like in the last scenario.<br />
<br />
Luckily, you can (versions 1.12.2, 1.13.4) lure out the Eastern and the Southern Orc Warlord leaders on Turn 1, and since their recruits can't move on that turn, they will both have opened themselves to be taken out during the next turn. Plan your Turn 1 recruiting and Turn 2 attack carefully, to have enough muscle to take out the leaders and enough brawn and speed not to expose the damaged units too much to the two keep-full's of recruits who will scream bloody murder (literally...). <br />
<br />
The Western Troll-Warrior-lead contingent cannot reach you in full force until turn 3 and (on Medium) may not attack all-out even then, so regardless of the leader lure gambit - deal as much damage as possible during the first day, while maintaining some reserve for defense during the night. <br />
<br />
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially if you're on Hard or short on gold. Run South with a sufficient amount of screening units and hopefully those units you want to try and evacuate (they shouldn't be slow ones). Focus on running the Engineer - using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable (sigh...). Engage the enemy sparingly, only at those points necessary to clear the way for the evacuee units, or where you see an opportunity to level-up and heal. With the large keep in this scenario you have no excuse to dilly-dally.<br />
<br />
On Hard, If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for leveling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Besieged'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.<br />
<br />
WanderingHero: While this scenario is cruel, its not as asinine as it appears. You've already beaten the hardest scenarios of the campaign, so you don't have much to worry about taking losses. Try saving a White Mage, and maybe a Knight that's close to Paladin or a Paladin; although even this is hardly essential. Your heavily armored units and able-bodied Ogres can be used to wall the enemy. Although the situation looks grim, you're actually near the end of the campaign, and the worst is behind you. You'll see the Checkered flag soon enough...<br />
<br />
=== The Drowned Plains ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
Khrakrahs is a level-4 Skeletal Dragon that will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the South). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.<br />
<br />
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units —preferrably using impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there. Magical attacks from your magi are also very effective against the dragon.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity for all the units with holy amulets you still have with you. Use them against the ambushers. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of your best anti-undead units, find and kill the dragon and reap the reward.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Approaching Weldyn ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.<br />
* '''Turns''': 24.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.<br />
<br />
The objective is simple enough; Gweddry has to reach the castle occupied by Konrad II. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.<br />
<br />
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.<br />
<br />
=== The Council ===<br />
<br />
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.<br />
<br />
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===<br />
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.<br />
* '''Turns''': 18.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.<br />
<br />
At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders (Liches) with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The Southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits Nightgaunts, the Southeastern Lich is the only one that recruits Blood Bats, and the Northern Lich is the only one that recruits Spectres.<br />
<br />
The time of-day cycle in this scenario is 3 times slower than usual, and it starts at sunset, so the first 3 turns are Dusk, and then it's night-time (first and second watch) during another half of the entire scenario, which is painful - literally, considering the damage the Undead will deal your troops. Fearless or Neutral-alignment units are important, as is careful use of your Mages of Light's Illumination (see also below).<br />
<br />
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the Liches and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the Northern keep.<br />
<br />
Typically, the backbone of your army will be Heavy Infantry track units, Mages, and your Mages of Light (Dacyn and hopefully at least another one). On the first turn, recall one of each, plus 3 Cavalry units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the cavalry to rob your allies of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the cavalry can run around to distract the enemy. Send your Heavy infantry types, Mages, and Mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: Arch Mages, Silver Mages, White Mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios.<br />
<br />
However, if you managed to get your forces off the lake Vrug island in ''Evacuation'' (without blowing up the bridge), it's likely you are now able to recall a good number of Level-3 units with arcane attacks and maybe you even have a couple of Ogres. If that's the case you stand a chance (on Medium and v1.13.4 anyway) to assassinate the Northern Lich before he runs out of money. The way to do it is instruct the Northwestern allied leader to attack the Northern Lich. Your units will set up in the fortified positions near the bridge due North, and in the villages - drawing some enemy units into the water and clearing one or two for your ally - while he, brilliant tactician that he is, sends his units blindly forward, North across the bridge and the stream to tackle the Lich's recruits head-on. This will bring the Weldyn units (mostly Mages probably) within range of the Lich himself, and he may come out for an attack - and into the water. If this happens (possibly on Turn 4 or 5) - make a gambit for his life: One unit can attack him from the bridge and one or two from the water. Of course these have to be arcane attacks, otherwise you're probably not going to kill him off; and apply Illumination to the attacker and maybe the Lich itself (i.e. make a Mage of Light one of the attackers). To complete the gambit, have some high-HP units defend the wounded attackers of the Lich from the side, so they don't get picked off easily the next round. Still, an L2 unit or even a Paladin is not a terrible loss in exchange for a Lich leader and his 100-gold-or-more in unrecruited units. <br />
<br />
... But it's more likely not to have such a convenient strike force, in which case you probably not be able to assassinate the Lich before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.<br />
<br />
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your cavalry. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now if you're in a bind (saving gold is a luxury in this level which would help you in 'Weldyn Besieged'). Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two Liches. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, cavalry, and/or silver Mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.<br />
<br />
For your main force, unless you have taken over the South-Western keep, you need to mind those invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that can be up to no good... they are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.<br />
<br />
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a Shock Trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a General up to lend Leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.<br />
<br />
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two to attack the remaining two Liches. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to ''Weldyn Besieged''.<br />
<br />
If you have one or two Silver Mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking. Make good use of Gweddry's leadership ability (he should be a Grand Marshal by now), and of Konrad's Sceptre of Fire to get rid of the most dangerous enemies coming your way.<br />
<br />
At the end of the scenario, you must choose between challenging Mal-Ravanal to a duel (''The Duel'') or defending Weldyn against the final Undead attack (''Weldyn Besieged''). ''Weldyn Besieged'' is intended as a challenging final scenario; players without a good recall list and sizable warchest will find ''The Duel'' much more accommodating.<br />
<br />
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===<br />
<br />
==== The Duel ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.<br />
* '''Other''':<br />
** You can only recruit for the first turn.<br />
<br />
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.<br />
<br />
Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.<br />
<br />
Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack.<br />
<br />
==== Weldyn Besieged ====<br />
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.<br />
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.<br />
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.<br />
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.<br />
<br />
This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.<br />
<br />
A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70376DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T16:19:03Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign-level notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This walkthrough is current as of version 1.16.6, so much of the advice here no longer applies to earlier versions. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
This is a slight spoiler, but there will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then even more enemies with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. At a key point Malin will need to tank a very large amount of arcane damage, so it is not wise to take too many of the upgrades that include the 'minor' cost of increasing vulnerability to arcane. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
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Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
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Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
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If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
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1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
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4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
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The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Multiple<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
This is a massive scenario that will usually take 100+ turns. Like an intensified version of A Haunting in Winter, it is mostly Malin flying solo, with a few undead sidekicks showing up right at the end, and it plays more like a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. The downside of this is that if Malin has not accumulated enough of the right upgrades by this point it may be simply unwinnable and require either replaying several earlier scenarios to get him up to speed or relying on a lot of save-reloading to win the tricky solo fights. <br />
<br />
You will get a lot of xp in this level, and the upgrades you choose will be very important. Counterintuitively, the most useful upgrades will be melee focused, first getting the strongest vitalize effect you can up until you finish the ritual, and then increasing your melee damage as much as possible afterward. The upgrade to get your movement points up to 6 and the one that gives you quasi-leadership are also very helpful in the upcoming boss battle. <br />
<br />
1 - The Flesh<br />
<br />
Malin starts the ritual to become a lich, and he first must 'overcome the limitations of his flesh', symbolically represented by a bunch of zombies and ghouls. You are surrounded by 6 runes, 2 each of 3 types. Each type of rune gives one of the following bonuses,and you can find out experimentally which rune gives which bonus: <br />
1. Lifeblood - heal 40hp every turn, or cure poison<br />
2. Carapace - gain 40% to all resistances<br />
3. Conscience - increase damage 50%<br />
<br />
Don't bother exploring the area away from the runes, there is nothing to discover. You just need to kill the randomly spawning enemies until a Necrophage named The Flesh of Malin Keshar shows up. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next challenge. This is where vitalize becomes so critical, as you will be taking a LOT of unavoidable melee hits, and those little 2 hp boosts really add up. Get the upgraded 4hp version if you get the chance. The Lifeblood rune will be very useful here as you will probably be repeatedly poisoned by all the ghouls. <br />
<br />
2 - The Bones<br />
<br />
Same set up, same runes, but now a bunch of random skeletons and skeleton archers, followed by the Bones of Malin Keshar, represented by a Revenant. The Lifeblood rune will serve you well again here, and carapace is helpful too now that you don't need to worry about poison. <br />
<br />
3 - The Soul<br />
<br />
The hardest stage by far, and the one where good upgrade selection can help but bad luck can still take you down. You're facing ghosts, spectres, and a very chonky 70hp Spectre named The Soul of Malin Keshar. The Carapace rune, the vitalize upgrades, and not taking too many of the upgrades that make you more vulnerable to arcane damage will hopefully get you through this battle...un-alive.<br />
<br />
4 - Regaining Strength<br />
<br />
You made it! It turns out that day one of glorious un-death consists of alternately chasing and hiding from various vermin. You're in a big complicated cavern system infested with various bats, scorpions, and rats. You need to explore, find stuff you can use, and maximize your new drain attack to recover you hp. <br />
<br />
The key to making an hp 'profit' from your drain attack is standing on good defensive terrain. Try to sit on castle or hill hexes and let the animals come to you, so that the probabilities favor you coming out of the fight with more hp than you went in. Vampire bats are often just a bad investment in this sense because they have such good defense on all terrain, and it can be better to just zap them and wait for a rat or scorpion to come along instead. <br />
<br />
There is one Dread Bat at 2.23 that you should avoid until you have a robust amount of hp built up, and should absolutely zap rather than trying to melee. <br />
<br />
As you explore, you'll get a sneak preview that SOMETHING very scary is in a keep at 17.7, so you will wisely avoid it for now and solve the various puzzles to prepare yourself for the next battle. <br />
<br />
Here are the events you can trigger in the cavern: <br />
<br />
1. Step on the treasure boxes on 4.19, 28.23, 27.6, and 4.26 - get gold depending on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Potion puzzle: Step on the brazier at 21.18, then the ice at 15.18, then the flask at 15.22, then the water at 15.18 (formerly ice), then the flask of water at 14.18, then the altar at 6.15 - +1 ranged damage<br />
<br />
3. Coffin puzzle: Step on the key at 2.1, then the coffin at 3.2, then the skeleton at 1.3, then the coffin at 3.2, then the brazier at 5.3, then the coffin at 3.2 - +2 melee damage <br />
<br />
4. Reflection Pool: step in the water around 19.30 - preview of the enemy keep. <br />
<br />
Hopefully by the time you've solved all the puzzles and killed all the little creatures, you have a decent supply of hp and are ready for the main event. <br />
<br />
5 - Xanthric<br />
<br />
Once you get too close to the keep, specifically once your sight range covers the keep tile itself, it will trigger the boss battle. Xanthric's stats and the number of minions he gets vary with difficulty level, but he's always a big problem. His ranged attack does an absurd amount of fire damage with the marksmanship ability to boot, and he has a strong impact melee attack as well. The lava around his lair all counts as illuminated, which shuts off your nightgaunt's invisibility. And his minions both have fire attacks which are very effective against your units AND they respawn from the lava the turn after you kill them. He also has a pet giant spider hanging out on a village at 13.6 just to make your life even harder. <br />
<br />
The first step of your strategy should be carefully baiting out the spider before triggering Xanthric and the rest of his minions. If you haven't been able to get your hp to full from all the random animals, you can sneak around the west side of Xanthric's keep and sit on the village at 12.1 until you get to full. Then sneak back south, keeping just outside the range where you can see the keep tile, and sit on the village at 10.8. Here, the spider can see you, but xanthric cannot. So the spider will jump out and attack you, and you will fight back with your ranged attack. He will probably retreat to his village before you can kill him, but DO NOT chase him! If you do, you'll trigger Xanthric. Instead, just sit patiently on your village (no turn limit!) until he decides to attack you again. Eventually, you'll get a couple lucky magic attacks and kill him before he has a chance to retreat. Then you can heal to full and start the main event. <br />
<br />
When you move close enough to see Xanthric on his keep, Eidolon and your other 2 strongest ghost-type units will appear next to you. This is why pouring xp into Eidolon and finishing Alone at Last with at least 2 lvl 3 ghost type units was so critical. A bunch of runes will also appear around Xanthric's keep, and you can step on one of them per turn to summon a random assortment of low level undead units to help you. Unfortunately, Xanthric's team also appears, a number of fire elementals dependent on difficulty, (on Hard, it's FIVE). <br />
<br />
Xanthric's fire elementals will respawn every turn, so trying to fight them head on is not useful, but you can beat them with trickery. It's a very big map, the fire elementals have a huge movement cost over cave tiles, and as long as the original number of elementals are alive SOMEWHERE on the map, no new ones will spawn. So you can use Malin and your ghosts to lure the elementals south, always staying just out of their reach, all the way down to the signpost near the start of the level, then ditch them and race back north up a parallel tunnel. That will buy you 2-3 precious turns to fight Xanthric by himself. <br />
<br />
Once it's just you and Xanthric, trigger one of the runes, ideally the one on the east side of his keep near the two bridges. If you keep all of your ghost type units entirely out of his reach, he will jump out to attack one of your random fodder units. Now you can dog-pile him with Eidolon, your two other ghosts, and Malin with his melee attack (using your ranged attack would do more damage, but he does so much fire damage in retaliation that it is extremely risky). If you don't want to risk Malin in a direct fight, you can keep Xanthric ZOC locked by your other units while Malin rushes to his keep and uses the gold from the treasure chests to recall some other heavy hitters to finish the job. You're going to lose some high level ghosts in this fight no matter what, unless you get extremely lucky, but the last scenario is not that hard and you are about to get a new minion to compensate you for your losses.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the first two heroes—on the third iteration Malin's death becomes one of the 'victory conditions'. When Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end. You also have the option of choosing to give away the book in hopes that the world will one day accept necromancy. <br />
<br />
Your new skeleton dragon pet has his own series of AMLA upgrades, like Malin and Eidolon, which you can explore to your heart's content by eating Foolish Heroes. <br />
<br />
If you want to take the 'give away the book' path, then just tuck Malin and a few of his friends into the little side cavern with the bottleneck at 20.27. The enemy will pile up outside the bottleneck,and eventually one of them will stumble onto the book. <br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70375DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T05:34:01Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Endless Night */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
This is a slight spoiler, but there will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then even more enemies with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. At a key point Malin will need to tank a very large amount of arcane damage, so it is not wise to take too many of the upgrades that include the 'minor' cost of increasing vulnerability to arcane. <br />
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You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
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''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
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''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
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''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
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Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
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The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
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Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
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None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
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There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
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1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
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One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
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In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
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If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
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As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
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Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
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There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
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=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
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This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
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The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
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=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
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NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
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Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
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Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
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Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
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=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
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The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
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Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
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=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
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Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
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If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
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You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
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Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
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There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
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1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Multiple<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
This is a massive scenario that will usually take 100+ turns. Like an intensified version of A Haunting in Winter, it is mostly Malin flying solo, with a few undead sidekicks showing up right at the end, and it plays more like a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. The downside of this is that if Malin has not accumulated enough of the right upgrades by this point it may be simply unwinnable and require either replaying several earlier scenarios to get him up to speed or relying on a lot of save-reloading to win the tricky solo fights. <br />
<br />
You will get a lot of xp in this level, and the upgrades you choose will be very important. Counterintuitively, the most useful upgrades will be melee focused, first getting the strongest vitalize effect you can up until you finish the ritual, and then increasing your melee damage as much as possible afterward. The upgrade to get your movement points up to 6 and the one that gives you quasi-leadership are also very helpful in the upcoming boss battle. <br />
<br />
1 - The Flesh<br />
<br />
Malin starts the ritual to become a lich, and he first must 'overcome the limitations of his flesh', symbolically represented by a bunch of zombies and ghouls. You are surrounded by 6 runes, 2 each of 3 types. Each type of rune gives one of the following bonuses,and you can find out experimentally which rune gives which bonus: <br />
1. Lifeblood - heal 40hp every turn, or cure poison<br />
2. Carapace - gain 40% to all resistances<br />
3. Conscience - increase damage 50%<br />
<br />
Don't bother exploring the area away from the runes, there is nothing to discover. You just need to kill the randomly spawning enemies until a Necrophage named The Flesh of Malin Keshar shows up. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next challenge. This is where vitalize becomes so critical, as you will be taking a LOT of unavoidable melee hits, and those little 2 hp boosts really add up. Get the upgraded 4hp version if you get the chance. The Lifeblood rune will be very useful here as you will probably be repeatedly poisoned by all the ghouls. <br />
<br />
2 - The Bones<br />
<br />
Same set up, same runes, but now a bunch of random skeletons and skeleton archers, followed by the Bones of Malin Keshar, represented by a Revenant. The Lifeblood rune will serve you well again here, and carapace is helpful too now that you don't need to worry about poison. <br />
<br />
3 - The Soul<br />
<br />
The hardest stage by far, and the one where good upgrade selection can help but bad luck can still take you down. You're facing ghosts, spectres, and a very chonky 70hp Spectre named The Soul of Malin Keshar. The Carapace rune, the vitalize upgrades, and not taking too many of the upgrades that make you more vulnerable to arcane damage will hopefully get you through this battle...un-alive.<br />
<br />
4 - Regaining Strength<br />
<br />
You made it! It turns out that day one of glorious un-death consists of alternately chasing and hiding from various vermin. You're in a big complicated cavern system infested with various bats, scorpions, and rats. You need to explore, find stuff you can use, and maximize your new drain attack to recover you hp. <br />
<br />
The key to making an hp 'profit' from your drain attack is standing on good defensive terrain. Try to sit on castle or hill hexes and let the animals come to you, so that the probabilities favor you coming out of the fight with more hp than you went in. Vampire bats are often just a bad investment in this sense because they have such good defense on all terrain, and it can be better to just zap them and wait for a rat or scorpion to come along instead. <br />
<br />
There is one Dread Bat at 2.23 that you should avoid until you have a robust amount of hp built up, and should absolutely zap rather than trying to melee. <br />
<br />
As you explore, you'll get a sneak preview that SOMETHING very scary is in a keep at 17.7, so you will wisely avoid it for now and solve the various puzzles to prepare yourself for the next battle. <br />
<br />
Here are the events you can trigger in the cavern: <br />
<br />
1. Step on the treasure boxes on 4.19, 28.23, 27.6, and 4.26 - get gold depending on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Potion puzzle: Step on the brazier at 21.18, then the ice at 15.18, then the flask at 15.22, then the water at 15.18 (formerly ice), then the flask of water at 14.18, then the altar at 6.15 - +1 ranged damage<br />
<br />
3. Coffin puzzle: Step on the key at 2.1, then the coffin at 3.2, then the skeleton at 1.3, then the coffin at 3.2, then the brazier at 5.3, then the coffin at 3.2 - +2 melee damage <br />
<br />
4. Reflection Pool: step in the water around 19.30 - preview of the enemy keep. <br />
<br />
Hopefully by the time you've solved all the puzzles and killed all the little creatures, you have a decent supply of hp and are ready for the main event. <br />
<br />
5 - Xanthric<br />
<br />
Once you get too close to the keep, specifically once your sight range covers the keep tile itself, it will trigger the boss battle. Xanthric's stats and the number of minions he gets vary with difficulty level, but he's always a big problem. His ranged attack does an absurd amount of fire damage with the marksmanship ability to boot, and he has a strong impact melee attack as well. The lava around his lair all counts as illuminated, which shuts off your nightgaunt's invisibility. And his minions both have fire attacks which are very effective against your units AND they respawn from the lava the turn after you kill them. He also has a pet giant spider hanging out on a village at 13.6 just to make your life even harder. <br />
<br />
The first step of your strategy should be carefully baiting out the spider before triggering Xanthric and the rest of his minions. If you haven't been able to get your hp to full from all the random animals, you can sneak around the west side of Xanthric's keep and sit on the village at 12.1 until you get to full. Then sneak back south, keeping just outside the range where you can see the keep tile, and sit on the village at 10.8. Here, the spider can see you, but xanthric cannot. So the spider will jump out and attack you, and you will fight back with your ranged attack. He will probably retreat to his village before you can kill him, but DO NOT chase him! If you do, you'll trigger Xanthric. Instead, just sit patiently on your village (no turn limit!) until he decides to attack you again. Eventually, you'll get a couple lucky magic attacks and kill him before he has a chance to retreat. Then you can heal to full and start the main event. <br />
<br />
When you move close enough to see Xanthric on his keep, Eidolon and your other 2 strongest ghost-type units will appear next to you. This is why pouring xp into Eidolon and finishing Alone at Last with at least 2 lvl 3 ghost type units was so critical. A bunch of runes will also appear around Xanthric's keep, and you can step on one of them per turn to summon a random assortment of low level undead units to help you. Unfortunately, Xanthric's team also appears, a number of fire elementals dependent on difficulty, (on Hard, it's FIVE). <br />
<br />
Xanthric's fire elementals will respawn every turn, so trying to fight them head on is not useful, but you can beat them with trickery. It's a very big map, the fire elementals have a huge movement cost over cave tiles, and as long as the original number of elementals are alive SOMEWHERE on the map, no new ones will spawn. So you can use Malin and your ghosts to lure the elementals south, always staying just out of their reach, all the way down to the signpost near the start of the level, then ditch them and race back north up a parallel tunnel. That will buy you 2-3 precious turns to fight Xanthric by himself. <br />
<br />
Once it's just you and Xanthric, trigger one of the runes, ideally the one on the east side of his keep near the two bridges. If you keep all of your ghost type units entirely out of his reach, he will jump out to attack one of your random fodder units. Now you can dog-pile him with Eidolon, your two other ghosts, and Malin with his melee attack (using your ranged attack would do more damage, but he does so much fire damage in retaliation that it is extremely risky). If you don't want to risk Malin in a direct fight, you can keep Xanthric ZOC locked by your other units while Malin rushes to his keep and uses the gold from the treasure chests to recall some other heavy hitters to finish the job. You're going to lose some high level ghosts in this fight no matter what, unless you get extremely lucky, but the last scenario is not that hard and you are about to get a new minion to compensate you for your losses.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the first two heroes—on the third iteration Malin's death becomes one of the 'victory conditions'. When Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end. You also have the option of choosing to give away the book in hopes that the world will one day accept necromancy. <br />
<br />
Your new skeleton dragon pet has his own series of AMLA upgrades, like Malin and Eidolon, which you can explore to your heart's content by eating Foolish Heroes. <br />
<br />
If you want to take the 'give away the book' path, then just tuck Malin and a few of his friends into the little side cavern with the bottleneck at 20.27. The enemy will pile up outside the bottleneck,and eventually one of them will stumble onto the book. <br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70374DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T04:41:49Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Descent into Darkness */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
This is a slight spoiler, but there will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then even more enemies with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. At a key point Malin will need to tank a very large amount of arcane damage, so it is not wise to take too many of the upgrades that include the 'minor' cost of increasing vulnerability to arcane. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Multiple<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
This is a massive scenario that will usually take 100+ turns. Like an intensified version of A Haunting in Winter, it is mostly Malin flying solo, with a few undead sidekicks showing up right at the end, and it plays more like a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. The downside of this is that if Malin has not accumulated enough of the right upgrades by this point it may be simply unwinnable and require either replaying several earlier scenarios to get him up to speed or relying on a lot of save-reloading to win the tricky solo fights. <br />
<br />
You will get a lot of xp in this level, and the upgrades you choose will be very important. Counterintuitively, the most useful upgrades will be melee focused, first getting the strongest vitalize effect you can up until you finish the ritual, and then increasing your melee damage as much as possible afterward. The upgrade to get your movement points up to 6 and the one that gives you quasi-leadership are also very helpful in the upcoming boss battle. <br />
<br />
1 - The Flesh<br />
<br />
Malin starts the ritual to become a lich, and he first must 'overcome the limitations of his flesh', symbolically represented by a bunch of zombies and ghouls. You are surrounded by 6 runes, 2 each of 3 types. Each type of rune gives one of the following bonuses,and you can find out experimentally which rune gives which bonus: <br />
1. Lifeblood - heal 40hp every turn, or cure poison<br />
2. Carapace - gain 40% to all resistances<br />
3. Conscience - increase damage 50%<br />
<br />
Don't bother exploring the area away from the runes, there is nothing to discover. You just need to kill the randomly spawning enemies until a Necrophage named The Flesh of Malin Keshar shows up. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next challenge. This is where vitalize becomes so critical, as you will be taking a LOT of unavoidable melee hits, and those little 2 hp boosts really add up. Get the upgraded 4hp version if you get the chance. The Lifeblood rune will be very useful here as you will probably be repeatedly poisoned by all the ghouls. <br />
<br />
2 - The Bones<br />
<br />
Same set up, same runes, but now a bunch of random skeletons and skeleton archers, followed by the Bones of Malin Keshar, represented by a Revenant. The Lifeblood rune will serve you well again here, and carapace is helpful too now that you don't need to worry about poison. <br />
<br />
3 - The Soul<br />
<br />
The hardest stage by far, and the one where good upgrade selection can help but bad luck can still take you down. You're facing ghosts, spectres, and a very chonky 70hp Spectre named The Soul of Malin Keshar. The Carapace rune, the vitalize upgrades, and not taking too many of the upgrades that make you more vulnerable to arcane damage will hopefully get you through this battle...un-alive.<br />
<br />
4 - Regaining Strength<br />
<br />
You made it! It turns out that day one of glorious un-death consists of alternately chasing and hiding from various vermin. You're in a big complicated cavern system infested with various bats, scorpions, and rats. You need to explore, find stuff you can use, and maximize your new drain attack to recover you hp. <br />
<br />
The key to making an hp 'profit' from your drain attack is standing on good defensive terrain. Try to sit on castle or hill hexes and let the animals come to you, so that the probabilities favor you coming out of the fight with more hp than you went in. Vampire bats are often just a bad investment in this sense because they have such good defense on all terrain, and it can be better to just zap them and wait for a rat or scorpion to come along instead. <br />
<br />
There is one Dread Bat at 2.23 that you should avoid until you have a robust amount of hp built up, and should absolutely zap rather than trying to melee. <br />
<br />
As you explore, you'll get a sneak preview that SOMETHING very scary is in a keep at 17.7, so you will wisely avoid it for now and solve the various puzzles to prepare yourself for the next battle. <br />
<br />
Here are the events you can trigger in the cavern: <br />
<br />
1. Step on the treasure boxes on 4.19, 28.23, 27.6, and 4.26 - get gold depending on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Potion puzzle: Step on the brazier at 21.18, then the ice at 15.18, then the flask at 15.22, then the water at 15.18 (formerly ice), then the flask of water at 14.18, then the altar at 6.15 - +1 ranged damage<br />
<br />
3. Coffin puzzle: Step on the key at 2.1, then the coffin at 3.2, then the skeleton at 1.3, then the coffin at 3.2, then the brazier at 5.3, then the coffin at 3.2 - +2 melee damage <br />
<br />
4. Reflection Pool: step in the water around 19.30 - preview of the enemy keep. <br />
<br />
Hopefully by the time you've solved all the puzzles and killed all the little creatures, you have a decent supply of hp and are ready for the main event. <br />
<br />
5 - Xanthric<br />
<br />
Once you get too close to the keep, specifically once your sight range covers the keep tile itself, it will trigger the boss battle. Xanthric's stats and the number of minions he gets vary with difficulty level, but he's always a big problem. His ranged attack does an absurd amount of fire damage with the marksmanship ability to boot, and he has a strong impact melee attack as well. The lava around his lair all counts as illuminated, which shuts off your nightgaunt's invisibility. And his minions both have fire attacks which are very effective against your units AND they respawn from the lava the turn after you kill them. He also has a pet giant spider hanging out on a village at 13.6 just to make your life even harder. <br />
<br />
The first step of your strategy should be carefully baiting out the spider before triggering Xanthric and the rest of his minions. If you haven't been able to get your hp to full from all the random animals, you can sneak around the west side of Xanthric's keep and sit on the village at 12.1 until you get to full. Then sneak back south, keeping just outside the range where you can see the keep tile, and sit on the village at 10.8. Here, the spider can see you, but xanthric cannot. So the spider will jump out and attack you, and you will fight back with your ranged attack. He will probably retreat to his village before you can kill him, but DO NOT chase him! If you do, you'll trigger Xanthric. Instead, just sit patiently on your village (no turn limit!) until he decides to attack you again. Eventually, you'll get a couple lucky magic attacks and kill him before he has a chance to retreat. Then you can heal to full and start the main event. <br />
<br />
When you move close enough to see Xanthric on his keep, Eidolon and your other 2 strongest ghost-type units will appear next to you. This is why pouring xp into Eidolon and finishing Alone at Last with at least 2 lvl 3 ghost type units was so critical. A bunch of runes will also appear around Xanthric's keep, and you can step on one of them per turn to summon a random assortment of low level undead units to help you. Unfortunately, Xanthric's team also appears, a number of fire elementals dependent on difficulty, (on Hard, it's FIVE). <br />
<br />
Xanthric's fire elementals will respawn every turn, so trying to fight them head on is not useful, but you can beat them with trickery. It's a very big map, the fire elementals have a huge movement cost over cave tiles, and as long as the original number of elementals are alive SOMEWHERE on the map, no new ones will spawn. So you can use Malin and your ghosts to lure the elementals south, always staying just out of their reach, all the way down to the signpost near the start of the level, then ditch them and race back north up a parallel tunnel. That will buy you 2-3 precious turns to fight Xanthric by himself. <br />
<br />
Once it's just you and Xanthric, trigger one of the runes, ideally the one on the east side of his keep near the two bridges. If you keep all of your ghost type units entirely out of his reach, he will jump out to attack one of your random fodder units. Now you can dog-pile him with Eidolon, your two other ghosts, and Malin with his melee attack (using your ranged attack would do more damage, but he does so much fire damage in retaliation that it is extremely risky). If you don't want to risk Malin in a direct fight, you can keep Xanthric ZOC locked by your other units while Malin rushes to his keep and uses the gold from the treasure chests to recall some other heavy hitters to finish the job. You're going to lose some high level ghosts in this fight no matter what, unless you get extremely lucky, but the last scenario is not that hard and you are about to get a new minion to compensate you for your losses.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70373DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T03:27:16Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Recruitment Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
This is a slight spoiler, but there will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then even more enemies with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. At a key point Malin will need to tank a very large amount of arcane damage, so it is not wise to take too many of the upgrades that include the 'minor' cost of increasing vulnerability to arcane. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
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''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
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There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Multiple<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
This is a massive scenario that will usually take 100+ turns. Like an intensified version of A Haunting in Winter, it is mostly Malin flying solo, with a few undead sidekicks showing up right at the end, and it plays more like a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. The downside of this is that if Malin has not accumulated enough of the right upgrades by this point it may be simply unwinnable and require either replaying several earlier scenarios to get him up to speed or relying on a lot of save-reloading to win the tricky solo fights. <br />
<br />
1 - The Flesh<br />
<br />
Malin starts the ritual to become a lich, and he first must 'overcome the limitations of his flesh', symbolically represented by a bunch of zombies and ghouls. You are surrounded by 6 runes, 2 each of 3 types. Each type of rune gives one of the following bonuses,and you can find out experimentally which rune gives which bonus: <br />
1. Lifeblood - heal 40hp every turn, or cure poison<br />
2. Carapace - gain 40% to all resistances<br />
3. Conscience - increase damage 50%<br />
<br />
Don't bother exploring the area away from the runes, there is nothing to discover. You just need to kill the randomly spawning enemies until a Necrophage named The Flesh of Malin Keshar shows up. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next challenge. This is where vitalize becomes so critical, as you will be taking a LOT of unavoidable melee hits, and those little 2 hp boosts really add up. Get the upgraded 4hp version if you get the chance. The Lifeblood rune will be very useful here as you will probably be repeatedly poisoned by all the ghouls. <br />
<br />
2 - The Bones<br />
<br />
Same set up, same runes, but now a bunch of random skeletons and skeleton archers, followed by the Bones of Malin Keshar, represented by a Revenant. The Lifeblood rune will serve you well again here, and carapace is helpful too now that you don't need to worry about poison. <br />
<br />
3 - The Soul<br />
<br />
The hardest stage by far, and the one where good upgrade selection can help but bad luck can still take you down. You're facing ghosts, spectres, and a very chonky 70hp Spectre named The Soul of Malin Keshar. The Carapace rune, the vitalize upgrades, and not taking too many of the upgrades that make you more vulnerable to arcane damage will hopefully get you through this battle...un-alive.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70372DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T03:20:10Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Descent into Darkness */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Multiple<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
This is a massive scenario that will usually take 100+ turns. Like an intensified version of A Haunting in Winter, it is mostly Malin flying solo, with a few undead sidekicks showing up right at the end, and it plays more like a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. The downside of this is that if Malin has not accumulated enough of the right upgrades by this point it may be simply unwinnable and require either replaying several earlier scenarios to get him up to speed or relying on a lot of save-reloading to win the tricky solo fights. <br />
<br />
1 - The Flesh<br />
<br />
Malin starts the ritual to become a lich, and he first must 'overcome the limitations of his flesh', symbolically represented by a bunch of zombies and ghouls. You are surrounded by 6 runes, 2 each of 3 types. Each type of rune gives one of the following bonuses,and you can find out experimentally which rune gives which bonus: <br />
1. Lifeblood - heal 40hp every turn, or cure poison<br />
2. Carapace - gain 40% to all resistances<br />
3. Conscience - increase damage 50%<br />
<br />
Don't bother exploring the area away from the runes, there is nothing to discover. You just need to kill the randomly spawning enemies until a Necrophage named The Flesh of Malin Keshar shows up. Once you defeat it, you move on to the next challenge. This is where vitalize becomes so critical, as you will be taking a LOT of unavoidable melee hits, and those little 2 hp boosts really add up. Get the upgraded 4hp version if you get the chance. The Lifeblood rune will be very useful here as you will probably be repeatedly poisoned by all the ghouls. <br />
<br />
2 - The Bones<br />
<br />
Same set up, same runes, but now a bunch of random skeletons and skeleton archers, followed by the Bones of Malin Keshar, represented by a Revenant. The Lifeblood rune will serve you well again here, and carapace is helpful too now that you don't need to worry about poison. <br />
<br />
3 - The Soul<br />
<br />
The hardest stage by far, and the one where good upgrade selection can help but bad luck can still take you down. You're facing ghosts, spectres, and a very chonky 70hp Spectre named The Soul of Malin Keshar. The Carapace rune, the vitalize upgrades, and not taking too many of the upgrades that make you more vulnerable to arcane damage will hopefully get you through this battle...un-alive.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70371DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T02:53:53Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Alone at Last */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
For all the strategies below, it's important to remember that, on Hard, Darken Volk has a +32 BASE income, before any villages, so he will keep recruiting to the very end and is surprisingly resilient against even sir Cadeaus's forces. <br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70370DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T02:51:19Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Alone at Last */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
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Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
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If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
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4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
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The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Malin or Deathblade to carry, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
# '''Fast and Ugly.''' Recall everybody, from Draugs to Nightgaunts, as well as a couple extra ghosts if you can afford them, and attack Darken head-on with a coordinated assault, across the south bridge. His wraiths will the most dangerous units to you with their arcane attack, so prioritize taking them out with Eidolon/Malin, and just wear everyone else down with weight of numbers, Draugs softening up his units and shadows/nightgaunts finishing them off. Move into the forests and hills west of Darken's castle and start pressuring him from that direction while Sir Cadaeus hits him from the Southeast. Prioritize taking out paladins, as they will be the biggest pain in the butt during your retreat, but ignore most of the rest of cadaeus' forces to encourage him and Darken to duke it out. When you see your chance, grab the book with Malin and then run like hell. Know which units are expendable. For the next scenarios, you NEED at least 2 level-3 ghost-type units to survive, but you can afford to lose a lot of Draugs and other strong units here and still be able to finish the campaign. This gets you done as quickly as possible, and you probably never interact with Dela's units at all. <br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
The next scenario will demand a lot of Malin and Eidolon, so get them as much xp as possible here, and try to get Malin the Vitalize upgrade if he doesn't have it already. <br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70369DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T02:29:37Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Alone at Last */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
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4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
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===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
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There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
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2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
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3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 35/32/29<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and loyal ghost<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peak, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 6.<br />
#* Inital force: 1 Paladins, 1 Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus, a paladin who will attack units that enter his movement range but will always return to his keep to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 100 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: mages, white mages, paladins, spearmen, heavy infantry<br />
<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 13.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Hard) 240 gold on arrival + 24 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: Spearman,Bowman,Swordsman,Longbowman,Thug,Poacher,Footpad<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the northeast corner. You and Darken are separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The fastest choices are Malin himself or a Deathblade; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
Here are the events which can be triggered in this scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 5.18 - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
2. Recall special Zombie Jaime (the one you got from the temple 3 scenarios ago) and move him to boat at 16.4 - gain special abilities<br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 23.14 that appears when Darken Volk dies - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70368DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T02:01:40Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Small Favor - Part Three */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
City guard units will continue to arrive through the entrance, like last scenario.<br />
<br />
There are 3 rooms in front of you, and then a big cavern beyond with the book towards the northwest section. The enemy mages can do enormous damage to your forces, but they don't move unless you put a unit in their attack range, so use your more expendable or sturdy units to bait them out one at a time and then quickly dispatch them. You can also have your units follow along behind Darken Volk's reckless forces and take out the enemy mages after his units take the big hits. <br />
<br />
As with last time, after you get the book and clear out the enemies in the cavern, you can camp at the entrance for as long as you want to farm xp. As with last time, the top priorities are getting to lvl 3 for Malin and your loyal ghost, and getting as many other lvl 3's as possible, especially Nightgaunts and Specters. <br />
<br />
The room furthest to the left is the 'armory', and if you have the right lvl 3 units you can have them pick up some of the weapons on the ground: <br />
<br />
1. Have a Draug step on the axe at 27.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
2. Have a Banebow step on the bow at 29.9 - permanent +1 damage<br />
<br />
3. Have a Chocobone step on the spear at 27.10 - permanent +2 damage<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70367DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T01:43:48Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Small Favor - Part Two */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
<br />
If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
<br />
You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
<br />
Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
<br />
XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
<br />
There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
<br />
1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
<br />
3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/19 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you had on the map at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. Any unit which does not move for a turn will still heal 2 hp as usual. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP. The city guard will helpfully filter in a few units at a time, and you can just camp your whole army around the entrance and kill them each turn before they have a chance to move. The scenario ends when Darken OR Malin exit through the northwest passage, so you can just sent Darken that way and let Malin keep killing city guard until the very last turn. Your top xp priorities should be getting Malin and your loyal ghost across the lvl 3 threshold, and trying to get as many lvl 3 ghosts, nightgaunts or spectres, as possible. <br />
<br />
There are a lot of objects scattered around this level, and many of them trigger dialogue, poems, etc, but the only one which has a mechanical effect is the amulet at 3.15 which will give Malin 10% cold resistance if he steps on it.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70366DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T01:29:13Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Small Favor - Part One */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
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Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
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You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
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''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
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''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
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''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
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Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
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=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
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Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
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The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
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Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
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None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
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There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
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1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
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=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
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In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
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One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
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In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
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If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
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As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
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Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
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There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
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=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
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This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
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The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
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=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
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NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
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Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
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Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
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Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
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=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
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The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
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Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
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=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
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Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
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If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
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You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
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Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
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There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
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1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor, or Defeat General Taylor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/16 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Darken to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen. Darken casts a spell which shortens all the guards' vision ranges, but the moment one of them spots one of your units, all of their vision ranges return to normal. <br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. <br />
<br />
For this scenario, the time of day remains Night throughout, so your shadows/nightgaunts will be continually invisible and all of your units will be continually punching above their weight. <br />
<br />
The most important aspect of this scenario is that whatever units you have on the map on the last turn are the units you will start with for A Small Favor Part II, and your surviving units from Part II will carry over to part III, but this will be your last chance to recruit until after Part III. So even if you employ a very non-confrontational strategy and don't NEED a lot of troops, you should still recall/recruit all the units you can in this scenario, as you will need them in Part II and III. <br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
#'''Party Crasher.''' If you went with the minimal recruitment strategy last scenario and came into this one with a lot of starting gold, you can just treat it as a straightforward battle and stage a frontal assault on General Taylor. Recall all of your best units, and as many ghosts as you can afford. Taylor will recruit a lot of HI-type units, so the arcane melee attacks will be helpful for taking them down, and you will NEED at least 1-2 shadows, ideally up to 4, for Part II, so this bloodbath is a good opportunity to level up some ghosts. A few skeleton archers might be useful here as well, as Taylor likes to recruit cavalry-type units as well, but skeletons can also wear them down well enough in the perpetual night. <br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. <br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
<br />
Events that can be triggered in this Scenario: <br />
<br />
1. Any unit moves onto whirlpool at 38.23 - hostile lvl 2 tentacle of the deep appears<br />
<br />
2. Any unit moves to temple at 10.18 - get a special Soulless <br />
<br />
3. Create a mounted-type Walking Corpse by killing a mounted unit with a plague attack, then move that WC to the Stables at 9.15 - Get a Chocobone<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70365DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T00:55:59Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Return to Parthyn */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
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Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
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Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
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The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
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Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
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=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: 17<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. This is much easier if both Malin and your loyal ghost (now "phantom") are at least lvl 2 already. In that case, you can just recruit 3 ghosts and attack drogan right in his keep. The enemy is very cautious and will not jump out into the river to attack ghosts, although they will do it for Malin. So just make sure Malin stays behind the loyal ghost until he's close enough to attack drogan directly. <br />
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If Malin and Spectral Servant/Phantom are not lvl 2, this direct attack method becomes more dicey, and you can instead try to lure drogan out of his keep by putting any unit without a ranged attack (e.g. skeleton, ghoul, bat) in range of him so that he will jump out and shoot his crossbow at it. Then you can surround him and take him out. <br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The orcs then appear at turn 5, hostile to both you and your sister's forces. Also, your goal has changed: You can either run for the signpost at the northern edge of the map, or defeat the orcish leader. Note that you can now kill human units without losing the scenario. <br />
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You can essentially either play this scenario to optimize gold or xp for the next level: <br />
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Gold: If Malin and your loyal ghost were strong enough to take out Drogan with only 3 additional ghosts for backup, then Malin can just make a run for it without recruiting any more units, sacrificing any remaining ghosts to cover his retreat if necessary. You mostly likely came into this scenario with an enormous carryover from Schism, you only spent 57 gold total this scenario, and even 40 percent of what you have left will still give you a very healthy surplus for the next scenario (A Small Favor - I). Being able to recruit a lot of units in A Small Favor - I is huge, because those units will have to last you all the way through A Small Favor II and III. The best route for Malin's escape around the western edge of the mountain range that separates him from the orc leader. Since there's no early finish bonus, you can afford to dilly-dally for a few turns and let your ghosts steal some kills if no one is putting too much pressure on Malin at the signpost. <br />
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XP: You can just spend all that surplus gold from Schism here, recruit a huge army, let the orcs and humans soften each other up, then take them BOTH out, and hopefully get a bunch of lvl 2 and even lvl 3 units out of it, as well as getting Malin and your loyal ghost well on the way to lvl 3 themselves. This takes you in to A Small Favor with a smaller but more elite force. If you take this path, try to have at least one, ideally two Shadows by the end of this scenario, as they will be very useful for A Small Favor II and III. <br />
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There are several triggerable events on this map: <br />
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1. Malin steps on monolith on 14.9 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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2. Malin steps on book on 29.25 - gain xp based on difficulty level. <br />
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3. Malin steps on monolith at 19.24 (appears after Drogan's death) - gain xp based on difficulty level<br />
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4. Recall the swimmer-type Soulless you got from the special event in the first scenario (Sushi), and move it to the boat at 31.15 - gain special ability.<br />
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===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
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It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
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There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
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# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
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# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
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<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
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As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
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An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
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* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70364DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T00:18:22Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Schism */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
The next scenario will be much easier if your loyal ghost (spectral servant/phantom/eidolon) is lvl 2, so focus on feeding him the necessary xp during this scenario. Remember that he has an unusual advancement process like Malin, so you will actually have to hit his xp cap multiple times before he properly levels. <br />
<br />
Ghouls will be less useful than skeletons on this level, because you're playing so aggressively that you don't have time to wait around for poison to take effect, and higher immediate damage will serve you better. Don't be afraid to attack the lvl 3 orcish leaders directly with your skeletons, as your blade resistance will minimize their retaliation damage. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70363DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T00:13:34Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Return to Parthyn */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
<br />
The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
<br />
The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
<br />
On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
<br />
If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant/Phantom/Eidolon<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70362DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-18T00:12:46Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Orc War */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
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Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Schism ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 37<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk <br />
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The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies. <br />
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The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus. <br />
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On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: <br />
Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior<br />
Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight<br />
Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin<br />
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If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
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So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
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But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
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It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
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There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
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# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
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# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70361DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T23:44:52Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Spring of Reprisal */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
<br />
The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
<br />
The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
<br />
The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. <br />
You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
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[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70360DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T23:39:16Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Spring of Reprisal */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
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''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
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''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
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Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
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The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
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There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
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1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
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One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
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In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
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As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
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Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
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There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
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The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy. <br />
<br />
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Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost. <br />
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The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place. <br />
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The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire. <br />
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The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant. <br />
<br />
Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70359DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T22:56:22Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Beginning of the Revenge */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
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The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
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Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
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None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
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There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
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1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
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One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
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In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
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If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
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As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
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The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
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Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
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There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
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The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
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1 - Young Ogres<br />
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There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
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After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
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All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
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4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
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You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
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5 - Wolf pack<br />
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If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
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Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
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2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
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3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
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Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
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7 - Ghost Training<br />
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Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
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ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Spring of Reprisal ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 26<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
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Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin tot he signpost. <br />
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The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
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Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
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'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
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=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
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While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
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* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
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If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
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=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
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Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
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So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
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So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
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But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
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It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
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There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
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# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
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# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
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<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
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===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70358DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T22:51:58Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Haunting in Winter */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
<br />
2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
<br />
3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
<br />
2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
<br />
3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
<br />
You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
<br />
6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
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As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70357DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T22:50:04Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Haunting in Winter */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
<br />
The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Reach the end of the cave<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)<br />
<br />
This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers. <br />
<br />
The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units in the usual way, but no matter how many villages you capture you can never increase your gold. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep. <br />
<br />
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones. <br />
<br />
1 - Young Ogres<br />
<br />
There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible. <br />
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2 - Ogre<br />
<br />
After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out. <br />
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3 - Mudcrawlers<br />
<br />
All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. <br />
There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. <br />
The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up. <br />
<br />
4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must:<br />
1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10<br />
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2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6<br />
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3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5<br />
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You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. <br />
Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario. <br />
<br />
5 - Wolf pack<br />
<br />
If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively. <br />
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6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle<br />
<br />
Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: <br />
1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2<br />
<br />
2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse. <br />
<br />
3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)<br />
<br />
Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level<br />
<br />
7 - Ghost Training<br />
<br />
Move Malin into the water at 5.11<br />
<br />
<br />
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
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'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
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* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
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# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
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<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
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===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
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As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
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An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
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There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
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The two extra forces are:<br />
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# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
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Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
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When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
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Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
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A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
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# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
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Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
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Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
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In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
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However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
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You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
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[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70356DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T21:54:05Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* A Peaceful Valley */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
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''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
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''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader. <br />
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The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach. <br />
<br />
One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover. <br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army. <br />
<br />
The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken. <br />
<br />
There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin. <br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold) Ghost (20 Gold).<br />
<br />
It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the Dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. With foresight, make it a priority to level a Ghost or two into Shadows. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the Dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the Dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the Dwarves on two fronts.<br />
<br />
Spoiler: At one point in this scenario, a special event occurs: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue. Once you kill the rogue Ghost, the other rebelling units will return to your side.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70355DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T21:03:42Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign-level notes */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes. <br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
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You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
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''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
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''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
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''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
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Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
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Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
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The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
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There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
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1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
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3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
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The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/23 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement: The Western half of the level is full of village hexes. The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Spearmen and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
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The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach.<br />
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In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
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If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage (but caution is advised, especially on Hard difficulty). Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
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As you begin the level, Volken suggests you visit the swamp. That's a good idea, but don't do this before maxing out your Gold with WC recruitment, as the swamp is more than a turn's walk away, and you need those troops early. You see, the enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
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As the first attack subsides, have Malin visit the swamp (no need for Volken to do so as well). You'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. The only caveat is that it takes them a few turns to move out of the swamp. These can soak up some damage when you counter-attack, or if a Wolf Riders comes down South again. When the tide turns, remember: Easy on the villages; eyes on the enemy leader (which Malin and Volken should take care of).<br />
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Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
* As in the previous scenario - don't bother trying to level-up the Walking Corpses. Almost-leveling up a Ghoul could be useful, and/or giving Malin more experience.<br />
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=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold) Ghost (20 Gold).<br />
<br />
It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the Dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.<br />
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This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. With foresight, make it a priority to level a Ghost or two into Shadows. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the Dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the Dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the Dwarves on two fronts.<br />
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Spoiler: At one point in this scenario, a special event occurs: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue. Once you kill the rogue Ghost, the other rebelling units will return to your side.<br />
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=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
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The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
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Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
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'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
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'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
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'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
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'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
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While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
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There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
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* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
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If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
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When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
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So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
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But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
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It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
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As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
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There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
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# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
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# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
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===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70354DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T21:00:55Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Recruitment Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> will undergo a significant revision in the upcoming 1.14.7 release of <i>The Battle for Wesnoth</i>. When 1.14.7 is released, this page will be out of date, and much of the information regarding strategy and in-scenario events may no longer apply.<br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. <br />
In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. <br />
There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo. <br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless. <br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself. <br />
<br />
Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are. <br />
<br />
Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/23 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement: The Western half of the level is full of village hexes. The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Spearmen and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach.<br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage (but caution is advised, especially on Hard difficulty). Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Volken suggests you visit the swamp. That's a good idea, but don't do this before maxing out your Gold with WC recruitment, as the swamp is more than a turn's walk away, and you need those troops early. You see, the enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
As the first attack subsides, have Malin visit the swamp (no need for Volken to do so as well). You'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. The only caveat is that it takes them a few turns to move out of the swamp. These can soak up some damage when you counter-attack, or if a Wolf Riders comes down South again. When the tide turns, remember: Easy on the villages; eyes on the enemy leader (which Malin and Volken should take care of).<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
* As in the previous scenario - don't bother trying to level-up the Walking Corpses. Almost-leveling up a Ghoul could be useful, and/or giving Malin more experience.<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold) Ghost (20 Gold).<br />
<br />
It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the Dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. With foresight, make it a priority to level a Ghost or two into Shadows. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the Dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the Dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the Dwarves on two fronts.<br />
<br />
Spoiler: At one point in this scenario, a special event occurs: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue. Once you kill the rogue Ghost, the other rebelling units will return to your side.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70353DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T02:28:39Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Saving Parthyn */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> will undergo a significant revision in the upcoming 1.14.7 release of <i>The Battle for Wesnoth</i>. When 1.14.7 is released, this page will be out of date, and much of the information regarding strategy and in-scenario events may no longer apply.<br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' will only become available to you relatively late in your campaign, so don't expect to be able to rely on Liches and Necromancers.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
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2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/23 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement: The Western half of the level is full of village hexes. The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Spearmen and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach.<br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage (but caution is advised, especially on Hard difficulty). Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Volken suggests you visit the swamp. That's a good idea, but don't do this before maxing out your Gold with WC recruitment, as the swamp is more than a turn's walk away, and you need those troops early. You see, the enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
As the first attack subsides, have Malin visit the swamp (no need for Volken to do so as well). You'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. The only caveat is that it takes them a few turns to move out of the swamp. These can soak up some damage when you counter-attack, or if a Wolf Riders comes down South again. When the tide turns, remember: Easy on the villages; eyes on the enemy leader (which Malin and Volken should take care of).<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
* As in the previous scenario - don't bother trying to level-up the Walking Corpses. Almost-leveling up a Ghoul could be useful, and/or giving Malin more experience.<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold) Ghost (20 Gold).<br />
<br />
It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the Dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. With foresight, make it a priority to level a Ghost or two into Shadows. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the Dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the Dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the Dwarves on two fronts.<br />
<br />
Spoiler: At one point in this scenario, a special event occurs: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue. Once you kill the rogue Ghost, the other rebelling units will return to your side.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
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* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
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The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
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# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
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As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=DescentIntoDarkness&diff=70352DescentIntoDarkness2023-01-17T02:28:01Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Saving Parthyn */</p>
<hr />
<div>=== Campaign-level notes ===<br />
<br />
:<i>Descent into Darkness</i> will undergo a significant revision in the upcoming 1.14.7 release of <i>The Battle for Wesnoth</i>. When 1.14.7 is released, this page will be out of date, and much of the information regarding strategy and in-scenario events may no longer apply.<br />
<br />
==== Recruitment Strategy ====<br />
<br />
''Ghosts'' will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows available for recall as soon as you can manage it.<br />
<br />
You'll be introduced to ''Walking Corpses'' very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours.<br />
<br />
''Dark Adepts'' will only become available to you relatively late in your campaign, so don't expect to be able to rely on Liches and Necromancers.<br />
<br />
''Bats'' are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.<br />
<br />
=== Saving Parthyn ===<br />
* Objective: Defend the fort for two nights<br />
* (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)<br />
* Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn<br />
* Turns: 13<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman<br />
* New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).<br />
<br />
Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.<br />
<br />
The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability. <br />
<br />
Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability. <br />
<br />
None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts. <br />
<br />
There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are: <br />
<br />
1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp<br />
2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp<br />
3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit. <br />
<br />
The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.<br />
<br />
=== A Peaceful Valley ===<br />
* Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 29/26/23 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)<br />
<br />
In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement: The Western half of the level is full of village hexes. The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Spearmen and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.<br />
<br />
The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, ''including those that you recapture''. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach.<br />
<br />
In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:<br />
* They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.<br />
* They're good at remote village capture<br />
* While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.<br />
* They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.<br />
... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage (but caution is advised, especially on Hard difficulty). Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.<br />
<br />
As you begin the level, Volken suggests you visit the swamp. That's a good idea, but don't do this before maxing out your Gold with WC recruitment, as the swamp is more than a turn's walk away, and you need those troops early. You see, the enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader ''himself'' is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.<br />
<br />
As the first attack subsides, have Malin visit the swamp (no need for Volken to do so as well). You'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. The only caveat is that it takes them a few turns to move out of the swamp. These can soak up some damage when you counter-attack, or if a Wolf Riders comes down South again. When the tide turns, remember: Easy on the villages; eyes on the enemy leader (which Malin and Volken should take care of).<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
* Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.<br />
* It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp<br />
* As in the previous scenario - don't bother trying to level-up the Walking Corpses. Almost-leveling up a Ghoul could be useful, and/or giving Malin more experience.<br />
<br />
=== A Haunting in Winter ===<br />
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold) Ghost (20 Gold).<br />
<br />
It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the Dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.<br />
<br />
This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. With foresight, make it a priority to level a Ghost or two into Shadows. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the Dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the Dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the Dwarves on two fronts.<br />
<br />
Spoiler: At one point in this scenario, a special event occurs: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue. Once you kill the rogue Ghost, the other rebelling units will return to your side.<br />
<br />
=== Beginning of the Revenge ===<br />
* Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 36<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
* New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.<br />
<br />
Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.<br />
<br />
The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.<br />
<br />
Players have used different strategies with success...<br />
<br />
'''Option 1, defeat in detail:''' This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.<br />
<br />
'''Option 2, assassination:''' Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.<br />
<br />
'''Option 3, feint:''' Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.<br />
<br />
'''Spoiler:''' Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.<br />
<br />
=== Orc War ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts. <br />
<br />
While there are 3 Orc warlords you combat here, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.<br />
<br />
There are several strategies you can employ in this scenario:<br />
<br />
* '''Split holding action and attack''': Recruit a first force and send South to the bridge to hold off the attack by the South-Eastern and later also South-Western Orcs - at the bridge. Then recruit and send another one West-by-NorthWest, to meet the North-Western Orc leader's (limited) forces, then take him out. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the Southern front, you might want to go after that leader next. It's more likely, though, that you'll want march your forces in the NW South to attack the SW leader, or possibly have Malin recruit a few more units before a Southern attack.<br />
* '''Onslaught''': Recruit one large force and use it to take out either the NW or SE Orc leader - before the other Orcish troops can catch up with you (NW is probably safer for this purpose). Then you'll probably want to take out the SW Orc leader. <br />
* '''Diversion & ambush''': If you've managed to acquire several Shadows, you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the Orc leaders. 2 Shadows may well fail, while 4 Shadows will likely succeed and possibly be able to defend themselves for other units before retreating. This tactic is not recommended, seeing how you will still need to defend Malin and Darken Volk from the Orcish forces - and if you can do that, the assassination becomes somewhat gratuitous.<br />
<br />
If the balance has shifted in your favor, you may want to delay killing the second Orc leader to maximize the experience gain for your forces.<br />
<br />
=== Return to Parthyn ===<br />
* Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)<br />
<br />
Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.<br />
<br />
When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...<br />
<br />
So here are your options:<br />
# Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.<br />
# Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.<br />
# Stand your ground and fight. You don't ''have'' to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.<br />
<br />
So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want. <br />
<br />
But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part One===<br />
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk<br />
<br />
You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.<br />
<br />
It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.<br />
<br />
The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.<br />
<br />
As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.<br />
<br />
There are a few options that players have tried with success:<br />
<br />
# '''Leader Assassination.''' Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.<br />Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it ''will'' carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.<br />
<br />
# '''Spectre-acular Cover Action.''' For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.<br />
<br />
# '''Bait and Ambush.''' Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.<br />
<br />
<br/><br />
Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).<br />
<br />
===== Which units to bring into the manor? =====<br />
<br />
Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"<br />
<br />
Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.<br />
<br />
As for ''how many'' units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.<br />
<br />
An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Two===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
<br />
* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack. <br />
<br />
Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.<br />
<br />
There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.<br />
<br />
===A Small Favor - Part Three===<br />
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out<br />
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario<br />
* Other<br />
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present<br />
** You no longer control Darken Volk<br />
<br />
Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]<br />
<br />
===Alone at Last===<br />
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle<br />
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies<br />
* Turns: 24<br />
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit<br />
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book<br />
<br />
The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.<br />
<br />
The two extra forces are:<br />
<br />
# '''Sir Cadaeus the Paladin''' is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 8.<br />
#* Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.<br />
# '''Dela Keshar''' is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.<br />
#* Arrives on turn: 12.<br />
#* Initial force: None.<br />
#* Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.<br />
#* Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.<br />
<br />
Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points. <br />
<br />
Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack <i>Sir Cadaeus'</i> - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.<br />
<br />
When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.<br />
<br />
Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin McGuffin], uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that '''not all units can carry the book'''. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.<br />
<br />
A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:<br />
<br />
# '''Assasinate, Grab, Run.''' Recall several squads of units:<br>Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)<br>Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.<br>Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.<br>The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.<br />
# '''The Northern End Around.''' Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.<br>Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.<br>A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...<br />
<br />
<br />
Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.<br />
<br />
Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.<br />
<br />
If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to [[#A_Small_Favor_-_Part_One|A Small Favor - Part One]]. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.<br />
<br />
'''Note''': This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.<br />
<br />
===Descent into Darkness===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: n/a<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.<br />
<br />
Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...<br />
<br />
In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.<br />
<br />
However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.<br />
<br />
===Endless Night===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero<br />
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed<br />
* Turns: Unlimited<br />
* Starting units: Mal Keshar<br />
<br />
And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.<br />
<br />
For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this ''foolish'' hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.<br />
<br />
You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.<br />
<br />
Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70307TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:30:04Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages, the drastic shortening of the (still very long) final scenario, and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost and makes your L1 units into cruise missiles). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but even one Dragonguard is sometimes too many. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a MASSIVE force multiplier, especially since the removal of mages, and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush the lich beneath your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70306TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:24:23Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages, the drastic shortening of the (still very long) final scenario, and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost and makes your L1 units into cruise missiles). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush the lich beneath your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70305TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:23:19Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages, the drastic shortening of the (still very long) final scenario, and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush the lich beneath your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70304TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:17:32Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Karrag */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush the lich beneath your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70303TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:17:19Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Karrag */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush Karrag beneath your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70302TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:16:57Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead. It is smart to prioritize recruiting and leveling up as many fighters as possible throughout this level, as their impact attacks will be most useful against the skeletal undead at the end. <br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush Karrag under your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70301TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:15:41Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Karrag */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units to supplement his huge number of lvl 3 dwarf and draug bodyguards. Wait until this moment to use the central dwarf's keep to recruit as many fighters as you can (their impact attack is most useful against skeletal undead). Crush Karrag under your dwarf swarm, using Angarthing's Inspiration to maximize their damage.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70300TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:11:38Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Central Room */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
This entire area is scattered with villages. Sending some units to start tagging them early will pay off with a huge income that will help you recruit lots of fodder units for the final battle.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70299TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:09:27Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The North-East and South-East */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. In one of the northeast tunnels is a chest with some gold. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages and the chest of gold, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70298TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:05:54Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Court of Karrag */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. In past versions, the lich would try to run for it and you would have to use ZOC to catch him, but as of 1.16 he just sits quietly in his keep and waits to be crushed. Pretty much the only way to lose this scenario is if both the berserkers gang up on Angarthing or Dulcatulos and get lucky, so watch their movement ranges, try to take them out with Dwarf Lords ASAP and the rest is easy.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70297TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T08:01:35Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* The Siege of Kal Kartha */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. There are two ways to approach this situation, depending on whether you want to optimize carryover gold or farming xp.<br />
<br />
For the highest carryover, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long. Movrur and Angarthing should head to the southernmost leader since he is the farthest from your starting keep. The middle strike team should be the strongest since a few orc units may pull back to defend their leader if you get there very quickly. <br />
<br />
For more xp, send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally (and steal his kills). Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders.<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70296TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T07:53:20Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Forbidden Forest */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. You would think this is your Griffin Rider's time to shine. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Your three enemies each have both a high inherent daily income and a lot of villages to work with, so they will send an initial burst of enemies and then a continuous stream of reinforcements. They also each recuit a different mix of units. The southeastern leader is a wose who recruits exclusively level 1 and 2 woses. The southwestern leader is an elvish Enchantress who recruits elvish archers, fighters, sorceresses, rangers, and heroes. The northeastern leader is an elvish High Lord who recruits archers, fighters, Elvish Lords, rangers, and lvl 1 and 2 elvish riders. The leaders do not appear to share line of sight, each sends their units on a more or less random search pattern until one of them sights one of your units and the rest converge on you. You can use this to your advantage by taking them out one at a time. <br />
<br />
Because your enemies will usually have high defense in this terrain and deal significant retaliation damage, you will want to recall units that have multiple attacks and high resistances. There is no such thing as too many Dwarf Lords for this scenario, and thunderers are a recipe for frustration. 1-2 lvl 3 scouts can be very useful against lvl 2 woses, whose impact attacks can take a serious toll on even Dwarf Lords. Counter-intuitively, it can make sense to not recall your griffin rider, because his resistances are so low and he can't spot any of the ambush units anyway. <br />
<br />
Your real enemy in this scenario is the terrain. 90% of this map is forested, and an elf in a flat forest gets 60-70% defense, while a dwarf gets 30%. Woses and rangers can appear from any direction at any time. Your most powerful weapon is controlling which areas of the map the heaviest fighting will occur in. Your second most powerful weapon is level 3 Angarthing. You DO have level 3 Angarthing, right?<br />
<br />
Heading straight east along the path is a trap. You will be hit by the forces of all three enemies simultaneously in the middle of the forest, surrounded, and destroyed. Instead, you must divide and conquer by either heading northeast or southeast and looking beyond the oppressive forest to the 2 most important aspects of the terrain for a dwarf: forested hills, where you are on almost even footing with the elves, and shallow water, the only place where your enemies are truly vulnerable. <br />
<br />
If you choose the northeast path, you will head for the northernmost bridge at 20.12. You might encounter a rider or other quick unit from the northeast enemy on your way, try to kill it as quickly as possible and don't let it slow you down. Your goal is to get across the river before the southwestern leaders units catch up to you. If a quick sorceress does catch up to you, resist the urge to try to kill it and focus on getting across the river. The east bank of the river is lined with hills where you can make your stand against both the southwestern and northeastern elves and try to take most of them out before the woses can make their way to you. Focus on keeping your units on good terrain and your enemies in the water as much as possible, and make the most of every scrap of healing, slowing, and Inspiration from Angarthing, as you will have only one village to work with for the next several turns of heavy fighting. When the flow of elves slackens, take your whole army east toward the sign post, making sure not to put Angarthing or Aiglondur too far out ahead in case of ambushes. <br />
<br />
If you choose the southeast path, take everyone straight south and occupy the river bank right across from the southwestern leader's keep. Most of her forces will already be dispersed around the map, and the rest will happily jump into the water to attack you. Slaughter them, cross the river, and then take her out as quickly as possible. Then move into the cluster of hills in the central area of the map and prepare for the waves of woses, northern elves, and returning stragglers from the sorceress' forces. Once you see an opening, head for the signpost in a group. The southeast path has the advantage of access to many more villages for healing and facing somewhat fewer total enemies overall due to cutting off the southwest leader's recruitment so early, and the disadvantage of a significantly longer total distance covered, which gives more opportunities for getting bogged down and surrounded. <br />
<br />
As of 1.16, this is the hardest scenario in the campaign by far, so don't be discouraged if you finish with little carryover gold or if you lose several high level units; the next scenarios are comparatively easy and will give you a chance to rebuild. This is also a scenario that can be flat out impossible for even expert players if they don't come into it with the right units. It can be very helpful to go back and replay the last scenario or two to make sure you come into this one with Aiglondur, Movrur, and especially Angarthing already at level 3, and with as many Dwarf Lords as possible.<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70295TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:54:12Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Fear */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find and defeat the orc leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario you interrupt a conflict between the masked dwarves and human peasants, and you all temporarily join forces to search for orcs. Every time one of your units steps on a village or a hex with a ruined village on it, a random assortment of orcish units will pop out. The orcish leader is hiding in one of the villages and the scenario ends when you find and kill him. <br />
<br />
Your reluctant allies are scattered across the map and lack any initiative. If an orcish unit appears within their movement range, they will move to attack it, but if they can't reach an orcish unit in a single turn they will not bother moving at all, and they will not search villages on their own, so their function is mostly to be distractions and punching bags when you trigger the orcish ambushes. They excel at this, as the bloodthirsty orcs will usually ignore your much more dangerous forces to murder a hapless peasant if they have the opportunity. <br />
<br />
This is an ideal xp-farming scenario, and boy do you need it. The next scenario is Forbidden Forest, and the more level 3 veterans you can bring to that fight the better. If Angarthing is not yet level 3 then getting him there by the end of this scenario is your top priority, and you can spoon-feed him orcs at your own pace while the peasants and masked dwarves soak up the damage. <br />
<br />
SPOILER ALERT: The exact orcish units who pop out of each village and ruin are randomized, except that the orcish leader is always in the farthest northeast ruined village at 26.7. He is a lvl. 3 Nightblade, he has a big entourage, and there are no peasants/masked dwarves nearby to distract him, so it is a good idea to position all of your units around that village before triggering it, and then try to kill him on the first turn he appears to avoid the retaliation. It feels a little cheap, but you can exploit the fact that you know exactly where he is hiding to finish the 'search' very quickly, get a big early finish bonus, and have more carryover for Forbidden Forest. You absolutely CAN beat Forbidden Forest with the minimum starting gold if you have enough lvl 3 veterans, but the extra gold 'cushion' can make it much easier.<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70294TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:32:07Z<p>Mal Shubertal: </p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70293TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:31:51Z<p>Mal Shubertal: </p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70292TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:30:21Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Troll Bridge */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Invaders ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat all Three enemy leaders<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf <br />
* Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged<br />
<br />
At first glance, this seems like really tough battle: Each of the three Orc Leaders is a Warlord, and has about as much money as you; so in a user-to-user combat your strength would comparable to just _one_ of them; and considering AI shortcomings - you're comparable to, say, two of them.<br />
<br />
But note the dialog about this being outlaw country... when you flag your first village, you will likely discover a number of these outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and avoid attracting Orc attention. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When you finally reach the Northern Orc leader, his troops will most likely still be brawling happily with the Northern outlaws in the North or Northwestern villages...<br />
<br />
Your keep is larger than usual; you should not need much more than a single keep-full of recruiting/recalling; recruiting more would allow you to secure villages faster and go on the attack faster.<br />
<br />
Note that outlaw assignments to villages is randomized, and some villages have no outlaws at all. Also, the villages the Orc flag seem to harbor about 2 more outlaw units per village than those you flag - so the Orcs get a lot more resistance than you do. Still, don't be complacent about the ruffians in these hovels; they can often luck out of an attack or two by your side and gang up on you the next turn in a very painful way (think backstabbing).<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.<br />
<br />
Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]<br />
<br />
[ [[User:revolting_peasent|revolting_peasent]]: I made two recruited a Scout and a Fighter, and recalled a keepful of mostly L2 units; and felt I had over-recalled, being able to finish the scenario by turn 17/40. Perhaps a single full keep is enough if you play careful.]<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70291TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:29:03Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* High Pass */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Movrur die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Movrur<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other, but the first 2 will hit you at the same time). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. Don't be stingy with your gold, the more units you have the faster you will be able to push through to the signpost. <br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive. He's crucial in this level for scouting and grabbing villages to get a good carryover, but the enemy griffins move faster than he does, the enemies spawn in unpredictable locations, and it's easy for him to get ambushed and killed if he gets too far out ahead of your main army. In the early turns especially, the best strategy is to have him start behind your lines, 'peek' out a few hexes to see as much as he can, then run back behind your lines to stay safe. <br />
<br />
Much like the first scenario, this one is all about playing favorites. You are facing a large number of enemies with strong melee attacks and better movement than you, with an insufficient number of villages for healing, so the question is not how to avoid casualties, but how to make the inevitable casualties count. Your priorities are leveling up Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur, and ideally getting a few of your favorite fighters/scouts to level 3 if you can. The rest of your army should be fighters, with maybe a few scouts or guardsmen, who you will use to soften up the targets for your favorite units to kill, and to screen them from the inevitable counterattacks while dealing as much retaliation damage as possible. Angarthing is crucial to taking out the lvl 2 trolls/ogres, as he can first slow them and then boost your fighters as they take them down. <br />
<br />
The griffin leader will sometimes jump out of his castle to attack a vulnerable unit. If he does this, heavily prioritize ZOC locking him and killing him if at all possible, as it will completely stop the flow of new griffins and make the rest of the scenario much easier. <br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
=== Troll Bridge ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: You loot 200 gold from the troll<br />
<br />
This one was a piece of cake. Recall a castle-full of troops, and set camp at the first line of trees and mountains, to the north side of the road. Your opponent can only recruit Level 1 Troll Whelps, so he doesn't have much attack strength. After the first onslaught, the remaining Whelps either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the enemies with weaker units, as it's a great chance to gain some experience. Also, after you kill the Troll leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - at Lord, the trolls can recruit Trolls. They are still no real problem though - recall a steelclad, a couple of thunderers close to leveling, and fill the rest of the keep with recruited thunderers; just the 1 round of recruit/recall is fine. Push a couple of strong melee units forward to take the shock of the first attack (there are a few hill tiles conveniently placed, and you must not allow any trolls onto these), then swarm them with thunderers. Angarthing 'slow' attack is useful. ]<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Invaders ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat all Three enemy leaders<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf <br />
* Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged<br />
<br />
At first glance, this seems like really tough battle: Each of the three Orc Leaders is a Warlord, and has about as much money as you; so in a user-to-user combat your strength would comparable to just _one_ of them; and considering AI shortcomings - you're comparable to, say, two of them.<br />
<br />
But note the dialog about this being outlaw country... when you flag your first village, you will likely discover a number of these outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and avoid attracting Orc attention. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When you finally reach the Northern Orc leader, his troops will most likely still be brawling happily with the Northern outlaws in the North or Northwestern villages...<br />
<br />
Your keep is larger than usual; you should not need much more than a single keep-full of recruiting/recalling; recruiting more would allow you to secure villages faster and go on the attack faster.<br />
<br />
Note that outlaw assignments to villages is randomized, and some villages have no outlaws at all. Also, the villages the Orc flag seem to harbor about 2 more outlaw units per village than those you flag - so the Orcs get a lot more resistance than you do. Still, don't be complacent about the ruffians in these hovels; they can often luck out of an attack or two by your side and gang up on you the next turn in a very painful way (think backstabbing).<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.<br />
<br />
Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]<br />
<br />
[ [[User:revolting_peasent|revolting_peasent]]: I made two recruited a Scout and a Fighter, and recalled a keepful of mostly L2 units; and felt I had over-recalled, being able to finish the scenario by turn 17/40. Perhaps a single full keep is enough if you play careful.]<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70290TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:12:33Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Strange Allies */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Movrur<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to flank the enemy forces while they are focusing on the river crossing. Be sure to recall your griffin rider to grab the northern villages and then steal your ally's villages to maximize your own carryover. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the map for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and/or dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river a more attractive strategy, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical so their high defense will not help them. Remember that Angarthing has Inspire, not regular Leadership, so even at level 1 he will already boost the attacks of your other level 1 units!<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold per turn even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages (including the ones you steal from your hapless ally), you can just camp on his keep for the rest of the level, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios. If you end this level with a level 2 Angarthing, you are on the right track.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Ratheln die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: Friendly Arch Mage, Ratheln, available in a village near the middle of the path<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. In terms of recruitment/recall, this probably means two keeps, or 8 units (on Medium); don't be stingy with your gold. If you've leveled a lot of units, and maybe even have an L3 Angarthing, you might make do a bit less.<br />
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Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive.<br />
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'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
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<br />
=== Troll Bridge ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: You loot 200 gold from the troll<br />
<br />
This one was a piece of cake. Recall a castle-full of troops, and set camp at the first line of trees and mountains, to the north side of the road. Your opponent can only recruit Level 1 Troll Whelps, so he doesn't have much attack strength. After the first onslaught, the remaining Whelps either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the enemies with weaker units, as it's a great chance to gain some experience. Also, after you kill the Troll leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - at Lord, the trolls can recruit Trolls. They are still no real problem though - recall a steelclad, a couple of thunderers close to leveling, and fill the rest of the keep with recruited thunderers; just the 1 round of recruit/recall is fine. Push a couple of strong melee units forward to take the shock of the first attack (there are a few hill tiles conveniently placed, and you must not allow any trolls onto these), then swarm them with thunderers. Angarthing 'slow' attack is useful. ]<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Invaders ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat all Three enemy leaders<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf <br />
* Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged<br />
<br />
At first glance, this seems like really tough battle: Each of the three Orc Leaders is a Warlord, and has about as much money as you; so in a user-to-user combat your strength would comparable to just _one_ of them; and considering AI shortcomings - you're comparable to, say, two of them.<br />
<br />
But note the dialog about this being outlaw country... when you flag your first village, you will likely discover a number of these outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and avoid attracting Orc attention. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When you finally reach the Northern Orc leader, his troops will most likely still be brawling happily with the Northern outlaws in the North or Northwestern villages...<br />
<br />
Your keep is larger than usual; you should not need much more than a single keep-full of recruiting/recalling; recruiting more would allow you to secure villages faster and go on the attack faster.<br />
<br />
Note that outlaw assignments to villages is randomized, and some villages have no outlaws at all. Also, the villages the Orc flag seem to harbor about 2 more outlaw units per village than those you flag - so the Orcs get a lot more resistance than you do. Still, don't be complacent about the ruffians in these hovels; they can often luck out of an attack or two by your side and gang up on you the next turn in a very painful way (think backstabbing).<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.<br />
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Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]<br />
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[ [[User:revolting_peasent|revolting_peasent]]: I made two recruited a Scout and a Fighter, and recalled a keepful of mostly L2 units; and felt I had over-recalled, being able to finish the scenario by turn 17/40. Perhaps a single full keep is enough if you play careful.]<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
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[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
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You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
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=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
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Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
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If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
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[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
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=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
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[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
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=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
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=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
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The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
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To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
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==== The Central Room ====<br />
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The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
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Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
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South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
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North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
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==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
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Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
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Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
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The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
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==== Karrag ====<br />
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Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
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=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
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It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
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(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
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Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
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==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
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==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
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Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
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==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
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When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
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==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70289TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T06:04:25Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* At The East Gate */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Recruit a force of mostly fighters, with a few scouts and/or thunderers in support. Send your griffin rider to tag the villages on the northern part of the map, and then have it try to pick off an isolated enemy unit, but be sure to not put it in danger, as you can't recruit a replacement.<br />
<br />
Most of this map is mixed forests and flat terrain with a few scattered villages. Dwarves get no benefit from the forests, so try to lure the enemy into confronting you on flat terrain. Prioritize taking out the goblin archers, as their fire attack circumvents your resistances. If your army is almost all fighters, then the grunts and wolves will be forced to attack them, and the combination of your 20% blade resistance and high retaliation damage will give you the advantage in the battle of attrition, although you will still suffer high casualties because you don't have enough mobility to get all your wounded units back to the widely scattered villages before the wolves pick them off. Decide which units are your favorites, ideally intelligent fighters, feed them xp and keep them safe, and accept that most of the rest of your first wave will likely die. It can be a good idea to leave your leader in his keep for the first several turns so he can send a couple reinforcements once your griffin rider tags enough villages to give you positive income. <br />
<br />
You can also play more conservatively by delaying your recruiting for several turns and letting the enemy come to you, so you can take advantage of the favorable terrain around your starting keep and minimize your losses, but this will lead to a lower gold carryover as your low-movement units will take many turns to walk all the way to the enemy leader after you finish the main part of the battle.<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to pressure the enemy leader while his main forces are occupied to the south. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the board for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river more attractive, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
You should still recall your griffin rider to grab villages and try to get to level 2. Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical.<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages, you can just camp on his keep for many turns, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Ratheln die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: Friendly Arch Mage, Ratheln, available in a village near the middle of the path<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. In terms of recruitment/recall, this probably means two keeps, or 8 units (on Medium); don't be stingy with your gold. If you've leveled a lot of units, and maybe even have an L3 Angarthing, you might make do a bit less.<br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive.<br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Troll Bridge ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: You loot 200 gold from the troll<br />
<br />
This one was a piece of cake. Recall a castle-full of troops, and set camp at the first line of trees and mountains, to the north side of the road. Your opponent can only recruit Level 1 Troll Whelps, so he doesn't have much attack strength. After the first onslaught, the remaining Whelps either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the enemies with weaker units, as it's a great chance to gain some experience. Also, after you kill the Troll leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - at Lord, the trolls can recruit Trolls. They are still no real problem though - recall a steelclad, a couple of thunderers close to leveling, and fill the rest of the keep with recruited thunderers; just the 1 round of recruit/recall is fine. Push a couple of strong melee units forward to take the shock of the first attack (there are a few hill tiles conveniently placed, and you must not allow any trolls onto these), then swarm them with thunderers. Angarthing 'slow' attack is useful. ]<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Invaders ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat all Three enemy leaders<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf <br />
* Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged<br />
<br />
At first glance, this seems like really tough battle: Each of the three Orc Leaders is a Warlord, and has about as much money as you; so in a user-to-user combat your strength would comparable to just _one_ of them; and considering AI shortcomings - you're comparable to, say, two of them.<br />
<br />
But note the dialog about this being outlaw country... when you flag your first village, you will likely discover a number of these outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and avoid attracting Orc attention. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When you finally reach the Northern Orc leader, his troops will most likely still be brawling happily with the Northern outlaws in the North or Northwestern villages...<br />
<br />
Your keep is larger than usual; you should not need much more than a single keep-full of recruiting/recalling; recruiting more would allow you to secure villages faster and go on the attack faster.<br />
<br />
Note that outlaw assignments to villages is randomized, and some villages have no outlaws at all. Also, the villages the Orc flag seem to harbor about 2 more outlaw units per village than those you flag - so the Orcs get a lot more resistance than you do. Still, don't be complacent about the ruffians in these hovels; they can often luck out of an attack or two by your side and gang up on you the next turn in a very painful way (think backstabbing).<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.<br />
<br />
Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]<br />
<br />
[ [[User:revolting_peasent|revolting_peasent]]: I made two recruited a Scout and a Fighter, and recalled a keepful of mostly L2 units; and felt I had over-recalled, being able to finish the scenario by turn 17/40. Perhaps a single full keep is enough if you play careful.]<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
<br />
To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
<br />
==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
<br />
Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
<br />
South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
<br />
North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
<br />
Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
<br />
The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
<br />
(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
<br />
==== The First Enemy ====<br />
<br />
He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
<br />
Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
<br />
==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
<br />
Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
<br />
When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
<br />
[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertalhttps://wiki.wesnoth.org/index.php?title=TheHammerOfThursagan&diff=70288TheHammerOfThursagan2022-12-27T05:44:18Z<p>Mal Shubertal: /* Campaign Strategy */</p>
<hr />
<div>The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.<br />
<br />
==Campaign Strategy==<br />
<br />
This campaign has been significantly changed as of version 1.14, with the most pivotal changes being the total removal of mages and the fact that the Forbidden Forest scenario occurs much earlier and is therefore much more challenging. The following guide is current as of version 1.16. <br />
<br />
Some general strategies for this campaign:<br />
<br />
* Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, his Inspire ability is like super-Leadership that can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to even units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As if this weren't enough, he gains Cure at level 2 and heal +4 at level 3. Heal +4 may not sound like much, but with the removal of mages this is your ONLY source of healing for the entire campaign, so getting him to level 3 ASAP should be your absolute top priority. <br />
* Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want at least 2 by the Forbidden Forest, and more is better. Their high resistances make them even more attractive in this campaign since healing is in such short supply. <br />
* It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. <br />
* Thunderers are questionable in this campaign. They are worse than scouts against woses, but better against riders, and they have slightly better armor, but their attack is extremely inconsistent which can make them a liability in key scenarios where you are fighting enemies on good defensive terrain. It is hard to imagine having too many Dwarf Lords in any scenario in this campaign, but it is easy to have too many thunderers. <br />
*In the key scenarios of this campaign you will be playing aggressively, either trying to assassinate enemy leaders, push through narrow tunnels, or run for signposts, so it will be much more useful to level up fighters than guardsmen, since the higher damage output will be more important than higher resistances.<br />
* Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into. The rest of your army has quite low mobility, so this loyal flyer can have a huge impact on your carryover gold in key scenarios with a lot of far flung villages.<br />
<br />
As of 1.16, Scenario 5 (The Forbidden Forest) is by far the hardest scenario of this campaign, so hard that on the highest difficulty it is very possible to do reasonably well on the preceding 4 scenarios and then find yourself suddenly stuck and unable to continue. To avoid this, during the first 4 scenarios you should prioritize getting Angarthing, Aiglondur, and Movrur to level 3, and ideally having as many other level 3 fighters and/or scouts as possible. Level 3 Angarthing is a massive force multiplier and can single-handedly turn this scenario from impossible to merely challenging.<br />
<br />
==Scenarios==<br />
<br />
=== At The East Gate ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider<br />
<br />
This is pretty simple. Send a mixed force of Thunderers, Fighters, and Guardsmen along the road, and a few units south into the hills if the orcs go that way. That path through the forest can be deadly – they will surround you if they can, and can heal at the base of the path. Any Dwarf in forest is weak, while Wolf Riders are at a defensive advantage. Send the Gryphon Rider off village gathering to the north. The enemy recruited some combination of Wolf Riders, Archers and Grunts. <br />
<br />
Try and keep your units alive (this can be tricky to achieve while moving forward – his units are dangerous, and some are very fast – make sure hurt units stay out of reach, rather than failing to notice that an almost dead Wolf Rider being chased by a Gryphon is still a threat), and try to level at least one dwarf – your leader is an excellent choice. Play according to the basics, and you’ll have no trouble.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: At Lord, what worked for me was to send the Gryphon rider around to villages, but wait to recruit until the first wave was almost at my keep. That allowed me to use my castle and mountains during the heaviest fighting.]<br />
<br />
=== Reclaiming The Past ===<br />
<br />
Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.<br />
<br />
=== Strange Allies ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Defeat enemy leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
<br />
In this scenario, you are allies with orcs who have joined the Northern Alliance, and must defeat a group of outsider orcs, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. <br />
<br />
Your ally is both outmatched and somewhat suicidal, so if left to his own devices, in a few turns his troops will get worn down and he will jump out of his keep to attack an enemy, get poisoned/surrounded, and die. So your first priority should be sending some forces across the bridge to your southeast to help him. If you play aggressively and your ally's forces are lucky, you can cross the second bridge and join the fight on the enemy's side of the river, where you should prioritize occupying the villages and mountain/hill hexes before your allies are wiped out. If you can't make it in time, you can instead line up on your ally's side of the river bank and defend against the enemy crossing. Watch the allied leader's movement range, because he will gladly jump out to attack an enemy unit if he can and put himself in danger. If you have enough gold, you can split your forces, sending the first group southeast over the bridge and the second group straight east across the ford at 16.7 to pressure the enemy leader while his main forces are occupied to the south. <br />
<br />
The enemy will focus heavily on assassins, which will be a challenge because of their high defense on most terrain, your units' slow movement, and the relatively low number of villages in the center of the board for healing. Your best bet will just be mass fighters to wear them down by sheer quantity of attacks, and dwarvish scouts to punish them with retaliation attacks and to reach villages more quickly for healing. Thunderers and guardsmen will be less useful because they are slower to reach villages once poisoned, and the single attack of the thunderers is too unreliable against high defense assassins. This also makes defending the river more attractive, as the assassins have only 40% defense in water. <br />
<br />
You should still recall your griffin rider to grab villages and try to get to level 2. Note that Angarthing gains the Cure ability at level 2 and he only requires 4 kills to level, so if you are able to funnel him those kills very quickly, that will make the rest of the fight against the assassins MUCH easier. This is made easier by the fact that all of his attacks are magical.<br />
<br />
Your enemy has an income of 10 gold even with no villages, so this is a great scenario for farming xp. Once you flag all the villages, you can just camp on his keep for many turns, blocking all but one of his castle tiles, and he will recruit ~1 unit per turn which you can use to give xp to whichever units you want. The best candidate for this extra xp is Angarthing, as getting him to level 3 ASAP will give you your only source of healing in this campaign and will make your life much easier in later scenarios.<br />
<br />
=== High Pass ===<br />
<br />
* Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Ratheln die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: Friendly Arch Mage, Ratheln, available in a village near the middle of the path<br />
<br />
This is a small level with the eponymous pass running through its middle, West to East. When you start scouting (with your Gryphon Master, which you really must recall here) you'll notice the level is almost empty! It must be a walk in the park... where's the catch?<br />
<br />
Well, you see those enemies close-by? The only ones on the level? Another bunch of them spawns every 2 turns, further East along the path (about where you would have arrived). With each respawn, and from each side of the pass, you will encounter (on Medium):<br />
<br />
* One Ogre (L2)<br />
* One Troll (L2)<br />
* Three Wolves (L1); their damage is the same as a Goblin rider (which is essentially a wolf with a Goblin tagging along on its back)<br />
<br />
Also, there's a Gryphon leader at the center-North part of the map. He'll have a few friends to send at you (mostly one-after-the-other). That's quite a lot on your plate, so you should be decisively on the attack to avoid facing an increasing pile-up of foes. Rule of thumb: by the third respawn, You should be able to kill the newly-spawned enemies within the 2 turns after they've respawned. In terms of recruitment/recall, this probably means two keeps, or 8 units (on Medium); don't be stingy with your gold. If you've leveled a lot of units, and maybe even have an L3 Angarthing, you might make do a bit less.<br />
<br />
Make sure your Gryphon Master stays alive.<br />
<br />
'''NOTE: In earlier versions (1.14 and earlier) there was an Arch Mage named Ratheln holed up in a village near the center of the pass (just North of it); this unit no longer exists.<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Troll Bridge ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Troll leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing<br />
* Other: You loot 200 gold from the troll<br />
<br />
This one was a piece of cake. Recall a castle-full of troops, and set camp at the first line of trees and mountains, to the north side of the road. Your opponent can only recruit Level 1 Troll Whelps, so he doesn't have much attack strength. After the first onslaught, the remaining Whelps either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the enemies with weaker units, as it's a great chance to gain some experience. Also, after you kill the Troll leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - at Lord, the trolls can recruit Trolls. They are still no real problem though - recall a steelclad, a couple of thunderers close to leveling, and fill the rest of the keep with recruited thunderers; just the 1 round of recruit/recall is fine. Push a couple of strong melee units forward to take the shock of the first attack (there are a few hill tiles conveniently placed, and you must not allow any trolls onto these), then swarm them with thunderers. Angarthing 'slow' attack is useful. ]<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Invaders ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat all Three enemy leaders<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf <br />
* Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged<br />
<br />
At first glance, this seems like really tough battle: Each of the three Orc Leaders is a Warlord, and has about as much money as you; so in a user-to-user combat your strength would comparable to just _one_ of them; and considering AI shortcomings - you're comparable to, say, two of them.<br />
<br />
But note the dialog about this being outlaw country... when you flag your first village, you will likely discover a number of these outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and avoid attracting Orc attention. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When you finally reach the Northern Orc leader, his troops will most likely still be brawling happily with the Northern outlaws in the North or Northwestern villages...<br />
<br />
Your keep is larger than usual; you should not need much more than a single keep-full of recruiting/recalling; recruiting more would allow you to secure villages faster and go on the attack faster.<br />
<br />
Note that outlaw assignments to villages is randomized, and some villages have no outlaws at all. Also, the villages the Orc flag seem to harbor about 2 more outlaw units per village than those you flag - so the Orcs get a lot more resistance than you do. Still, don't be complacent about the ruffians in these hovels; they can often luck out of an attack or two by your side and gang up on you the next turn in a very painful way (think backstabbing).<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.<br />
<br />
Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]<br />
<br />
[ [[User:revolting_peasent|revolting_peasent]]: I made two recruited a Scout and a Fighter, and recalled a keepful of mostly L2 units; and felt I had over-recalled, being able to finish the scenario by turn 17/40. Perhaps a single full keep is enough if you play careful.]<br />
<br />
=== Mages and Drakes ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Drake leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, and Ratheln<br />
<br />
Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition; your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just recruit one keepfull of seasoned troops (on Medium; perhaps less will do). Then rush quickly to the Drakes' nest, trying to stay in the mountains and hills as much as possible - otherwise the Fire Drakes could really hurt your Dwarves. Crossing the river at the mountains is going to be safer than crossing at the ford.<br />
<br />
Ratheln, the Arch Mage, does not travel well through the mountains and so is difficult to protect with your Dwarves. Run him down the waterfront (together with Perrin's mages), then through the forest, and have him crossover to the backside of the mountains, where he can continue to run. Remember that he's not really that powerful against the Fire-resistant Drakes.<br />
<br />
=== Fear ===<br />
* Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)<br />
<br />
The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.<br />
<br />
[ [[User:Cph|Cph]] at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]<br />
<br />
You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see [[#Campaign Strategy]].<br />
<br />
=== Forbidden Forest ===<br />
* Objectives: Move '''both''' Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
* Other: Staff of Righteous Flame<br />
<br />
This is a tricky one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. A human playing the elves could take on almost any number of Dwarves; only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat.<br />
<br />
Proper recruitment is critical for this scenario - if you want to conserve gold and only recruit about one keep-full. Explorers are the key to success. Recall up to four Explorers and Pathfinders. Their blade-type ranged attack is awesome against Woses - like scissors cutting into paper. Make it your #1 priority to promote any Pathfinders to Explorers. If you're lacking in the Pathfinder/Explorer department, Mages can substitute, as Woses are vulnerable to both arcane and fire attacks. Another reason Mages are nice here is that they always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. However, Mages are slow in forest, especially non-quick ones. And they are themselves vulnerable. If you recall/recruit a Mage, your second priority becomes trying to promote him to a Red Mage. You also hopefully started with a free White Mage or else can recall one. Then add a couple of Dwarf Lords or high XP Steelclads plus the Gryphon and you should be set. <br />
<br />
Because of all the ambushing, do not lead with low hit point units like Mages. And because of all the Riders, keep any critically-injured units well protected.<br />
<br />
For your initial strategy, you have two options:<br />
<br />
# You can go for a lightening fast knock-out against the Southwestern leader (an Enchantress, which has mostly weak units including Sorcerers).<br />
# You can park in the wooded hills just Southeast of your keep. You will need to finish off the assault from the Southwest very quickly, because Woses will cross the river and Elvish Riders will come swooping in from the Northeast - and you do not want to fight all three at once. You don't need to fight here to the bitter end, especially if there are multiple Woses approaching: When you see an opening, head South and across the river to finish off the Southwestern leader.<br />
<br />
After knocking off the evil Enchantress of the (South)West - Wizard of Oz reference there - there's not much reason to knock off the Elder Wose in the Southeast, nor the High Lord in the Northeast. So just head for the signpost - but be extremely cautious: Along the way you'll be hit upon by several ambushing Woses, Scouts/Riders and Elvish Archers. If you choose to follow the road, you'll pass by a temple on an small island, and can send a mage there to pick up the Staff of Righteous Flame. In addition to acting like a suicide bomber upon death, the bearer of the Staff gets the Steadfast ability, doubling resistances, which is nice for Red Mages and their advancements, with their 20% arcane resistance being doubled to 40%.<br />
<br />
Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders. However, most of enemy army will head South (drawn to your leaders) so it is usually safe flying around between villages in the Northwest to keep your income high. Use the enemy moves view (Ctrl+V) and steer clear of where you could get trapped. Once the Gryphon has flagged the Northwestern villages send it to join your main force.<br />
<br />
If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns; you do not need to sprint to the signpost.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to win on the last turn, be warned that you need to move Aiglondur or Angarthing onto the signpost <i>and then off again</i>, and then move the other onto the signpost. You can't undo if you used up all your movement getting onto the signpost. (In 1.14.4 the behavior will change https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/pull/3331. To win you will need to have Aiglondor on the signpost and Angarthing next to him, or the other way around.)<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: When I played this scenario at Lord, I automatically started with one of my Mages. This made it impossible to run straight through the level, since mages are actually slower than Dwarves in forest! So I recruited all Dwarves and ran for the signpost, through the middle island. But to keep my Mage safe, I sent him to the patch of mountains at 19,1.]<br />
<br />
=== The Siege of Kal Kartha ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos (allied leader) die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8<br />
<br />
It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.<br />
<br />
More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.<br />
<br />
[Mal Shubertal: Another option is to send all your troops east as quickly as possible, having the first wave go straight past the central enemy leader in order to save your ally, who will be surrounded by the time you arrive. Then turn and form strike teams for the enemy leaders. This option gives less bonus gold, but more xp.]<br />
<br />
=== The Court of Karrag ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out<br />
* Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other: Neither side can recruit units<br />
<br />
Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.6 and later) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: 65<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
<br />
You start in a entry room that has no enemies, with some gates in the east which will be opened by the first character to reach them. If that doesn't match what you're seeing in the game, you're playing [[#The_Underlevels_(Wesnoth_1.14.5_and_earlier)|the earlier version]].<br />
<br />
The first three bosses in this scenario recruit dwarves, while Karrag recruits undead.<br />
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To avoid getting bottlenecked in the first room, as soon as the gates are open push through with Lords and Sentinels who can easily withstand a wave of attacks by the enemy's L1 and L2 thunderers. Don't open the gate with a scout before your Lords and Sentinels are near.<br />
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==== The Central Room ====<br />
<br />
The first enemy dwarf's room is the center of the map. More dwarves are coming from the north-east and south-east.<br />
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Directly east there's a wall with two runes next to it, sending a unit there will give a hint that you need to find two other runes. These are behind the north-east and south-east bosses, split your forces and take them out.<br />
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South-west there's a lot of rails and gates, but none of these gates open. There are some villages to grab, but your gold will be negative anyway, so only send a unit if it needs to use the villages for healing. There is nothing to fight there.<br />
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North-west there's an area that has two rewards for exploring (each gives the unit +3 max hp), but again it doesn't have any fighting.<br />
<br />
==== The North-East and South-East ====<br />
<br />
Both areas have a dwarvish boss, a rune (behind a gate that's behind the boss) and some villages.<br />
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Both the north-east and south-east areas also have dead-end tunnels with nothing in them. Once you've killed the boss, found the rune and taken the villages, there's nothing else in those areas.<br />
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The runes can be used to teleport back to the central area. Once both runes have been activated, the wall to the east of the central room disappears.<br />
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==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Once the door is open, Karrag starts recruiting L2 undead units. Form a wall of dwarves with healers behind, and slowly take over the room. Karrag will get some extra gold when you get close.<br />
<br />
=== The Underlevels (Wesnoth 1.14.5 and earlier) ===<br />
* Objectives: Defeat Karrag<br />
* Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die<br />
* Turns: no limit<br />
* Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln<br />
* Other:<br />
** Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery<br />
** 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)<br />
** Teleportation runes<br />
** Secret passage down to the first Lich<br />
<br />
Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission. The map in 1.14.6 was completely redesigned, mainly because the original was considered to be too long, the redesign has a turn limit of 65 turns, whereas you should not be surprised to reach turn 200 on this original version.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared. You will have few villages for a long time, and need a big army from the start, so you will be in massive negative gold quite soon: so just recall and recruit as much as you can and move off. As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly.<br />
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(If you come in short of gold - less than 300 say - it may be worth recalling a smaller force and rushing an attack on one of the two side galleries in the start area - there is bonus gold behind a secret door in each gallery. If you have plenty of gold, you can just recall and you will be so negative by the time you get that gold that it won't help you.)<br />
<br />
Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. You would like 2-4 thunderguards or dragonguards, and a couple of sentinels would be handy for holding low-defence tiles. Most of your army should be Dwarvish Lords - you want at least 4 lords to start I would say, and in total 10 units that are either lords or will level into lords. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. <br />
<br />
==== The Gallery ====<br />
<br />
A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, as there is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits. Establish a defensive line across the room on one of the north-south lines of cave tiles that cut into the room - before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side, and you can sit your dwarves on the cave tiles and have a terrain advantage.<br />
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==== The First Enemy ====<br />
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He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem.<br />
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Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!) There are more enemies to the north, so send more units requiring XP to level up in that direction.<br />
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==== The Fight in the Corridors ====<br />
<br />
You are fighting a steady stream of tough enemies. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Keep a solid defensive line, let their units come to you, and keep killing and advancing as opportunity permits. Don't worry if this takes some time, there is no turn limit anyway.<br />
<br />
When you reach the main enemy at the end of each passage, as you enter the chamber with the keep, the enemy gives a speech and gets a big gold bonus to recruit a horde of L2 units. So don't rush in - step in, form a short solid line in the entrance, let them attack, keep cycling injured units for fresh ones and keep doing damage where you can. Their force will soon be spent and you can then advance again.<br />
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Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.<br />
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When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.<br />
<br />
==== The Spiders and the First Lich ====<br />
<br />
Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.<br />
<br />
The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east. The lich recruits a big army to start with, but then recruits hardly any more; so once you defeat his main force, you only need to send 4 dwarf lords and Angarthing through the tunnels to take out the lich (moving your white mages through the narrow tunnels is very slow and they won't be needed).<br />
<br />
But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.<br />
<br />
Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.<br />
<br />
==== The Second Lich ====<br />
<br />
He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do a slow chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines (including along the edge of the side chasms - the shadows can fly over them of course).<br />
<br />
His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, if you don't mind save-loading if it doesn't work, you could rush him - but there seems little point as you have to fight his army to progress anyway. So instead form up a solid formation just inside the door to his cavern - advance as far in as you can cover with dwarf lords, with plenty to spare - and then crush his forces when they come to attack you.<br />
<br />
-- Or, just *outside* the door, where the passage narrows to one hex. Advance far enough into the cavern to provoke a response, then retreat to that point where you can play 2-on-1 for turn after turn until he's done for. Put your healer right behind your 2-unit front line and it's a snap.<br />
<br />
==== Karrag ====<br />
<br />
Karrag is waiting for you in a... how surprising, a medium-size cavern with lots of castle hexes, some villages and strong units as sentries. This one will be more challenging, though, since aside from Karrag's recruits, the pre-existing sentinels are Draugs (L3 Skeletons): A couple of these may well be able to take out a fully-healed Dwarven Lord within a single turn, so be very careful. On the other hand, this _is_ the last encounter in the last scenario in this campaign... <br />
<br />
The cavern has two entrances (from the Northeastern access point, you go either East along a 2-hex-wide corridor with a path, or South inside a short winding tunnel). If you do want to play it safe, set up a choke points in both of them, each headed by Dwarven Lords with a healer (preferably Mage of Light at this point) behind them, and some backup Lords/Sentinels for rotation further behind. If you have a Arch/Grand Mage, consider letting him replace the Lord once in a while in the tunnel, when faced with a Draug, Deathblade or other no-Ranged-defense unit. He can take the heat for one turn before falling back. You'll be hit by the recruits first, but it won't be nearly as bad as the second Lich's huge army. <br />
<br />
After a while, practically nobody will come at you any more. At that point you could either advance slowly to trigger attacks from more Draugs, or just rush some faster units forward - you should be able to take out Karrag very easily now. Perhaps if instead of raising the body of the dead he had raised the brains of the dead he might not have lost so miserably against an inferior force.<br />
<br />
But the most disappointing part is not Karrag's relative weakness, but the fact that nothing actually happens with the Hammer of Thursagan - which will now be officially dubbed: The McGuffin of Thursagan.<br />
<br />
<br />
[elvish_sovereign] The easiest way for me to kill Karrag was to suicide my Mage with the Staff of Righteous Flame on him. It took on shot, my Mage and Karrag died. Almost no blood shed!<br />
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[[Category:Campaigns]]<br />
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]</div>Mal Shubertal