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This is a discussion of The Eastern Invasion, the campaign featuring Gweddry General of Wesnoth.
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:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+''
  
''Note by Crus4a7E: I played this campaing in V 1.4.5 (medium difficulty) using this walkthrough. As most parts did not quite seem to reflect the current state of the campain anymore, I felt obliged to contribute a number of updates to most scenarios' walkthroughs. Nevertheless, please feel free to further improve this walkthrough in particular for those scenarios I have not played and thus not updated. Overall the campain now seems well-balanced and is fun to play.''
 
  
The following descriptions are aimed at the "medium" difficulty level (as "easy" lets you get away with sloppiness and "hard" is for people who are comfortable with Advanced Tactics). Please improve these and add your own for later levels.
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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.
  
'''Warning: spoilers ahead!'''
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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.
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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.
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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.
  
==Scenarios==
 
 
=== The Outpost ===
 
=== The Outpost ===
  
It is probably best to recruit 5 heavy infantry and 1 mage on this scenario. The heavy infantry can flag the villages surrounding you by turn 3, turn 2 if they're quick, and the mage can flag the northern forest village on turn 2 if quick.
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* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.
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* '''Lose if''':  Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 16.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
  
Sending 2 HI(heavy infantry) south, to the revenants, is a good idea because you can usually get both of them a 2nd level kill without having either die. The other ones should stand and fight against the enemies coming at you from the north and east. Use the HI most of time, and use the mage when they are in forest and it can get a killing blow. By the end of the scenario, you should have 2-3 shock troopers and 1 half-advanced mage.
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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.  
  
It is sometimes a good idea to recruit another mage on turn 10 or so, since you will probably end the scenario with less than 100 gold anyway, so you save money by buying in advance. (mathematically this does make sense). Also, you can get them about 10 experience along the way.
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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.
  
==== Alternative Strategy ====
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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.  
The above strategy did not work for me despite of several attempts. Whenever I recruited only 5 HI or tried to send 2 HI southwards to capture villages I got slaughtered around turns 10 to 12 by the latest. (Played with V 1.4.5 on medium difficulty) Thus below I describe an alternative strategy which worked rather painlessly for me.
 
  
Remark: In V 1.4.5 all of the villages surrounding the player's keep are already flagged at the start. Only in the very south (south of the river) are a couple of unflagged villages.
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Defensive approach #1:  
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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.
  
Recruit one keep full of HI in turn 1 (no mage, as there is little use in it in this scenario and we are short of money). In turn 2, move the HI to build a straight line northeast and east of your castle (the line should be inside the castle walls whereever possible to use its high defence rating but other than that as straight as possible to only allow two enemy units at a time to attack any of your HI). Then wait about 2 to 3 turns until the enemy forces start to attack and you have enough money to recruit about another 3 HI. Use them to reinforce your line.
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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.
  
Then just hold out 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 to much about keeping the original line intact. Instead try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy forces quickly cease to be any danger to your forces.
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Defensive approach #2:
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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.
  
Also around turn 12 the white mage re-arrives and points out a trap door you should use. The trap door is located near your castle and clearly visible unless any unit stands on it. So if you do not see it right away, just move your units around a little.
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Offensive approach:
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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.
  
Position your leader near the trap door so he can reach it in one turn. As it is almost impossible to finish with more than 100 gold (which is the minimum starting gold of the next level), use the remaining turns to level as many units as possible and only move your leader onto the trap door in the very last turn.
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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.  
  
Using this strategy I finished with 2 shock troopers and several well-levelled HI. Also your leader and the white mage should have gained a little experience.
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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.  
  
==== Alternative Strategy #2 ====
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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!
An alternative strategy to consider is to recruit as late as possible and to start fighting when the sun is up. Somehow you will be able to decide when to engage in the battle, as the enemy will let you stay in your castle without bothering you.
 
  
At turn #4, recruit 1 Mage and 5 Heavy Infantrymen (HI). The trick is not to move a single unit and somehow, no one attacks you. I did the test multiple times and I always started the first fight when I decided it was time (i.e. during the day light). A variation of the strategy that does not work is to start recruiting only when the sun is up; somehow the enemy attacks your leader.
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=== Escape Tunnel ===
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* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** Permanent holy amulet in the North.
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** Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast
  
Turn #7, this is dawn and now you can start attacking. My goal is to finish any fight with my Mage or the Leader to get them to level 2 and 3 as soon as possible. White Mages always make my life easier during Campaigns. I also recruit 2 HI, 1 Cavalryman to go get some villages, and 1 Mage.
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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.
  
You will end up with 1 HI or your Leader at level 2 and your Mages should be half way to Level 2.
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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.  
  
==== Alternative Strategy... #3 ====
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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.  
None of the above tactics work when playing under the "challenging" difficulty level(since you are given only 80 coins at the beginning of the scenario).
 
  
My advice when playing this on the hardest level is to spend your starting money on two HI units and two cavalry units. Don't buy any mages -- they are too fragile and expensive. Your main goal is to keep away as much enemy forces as possible from your keep (ESPECIALLY during night). Use the cavalry to divert at least a small portion of the undead by making them chase your horsemen. Remember to always "taunt" them -- capture the villages near their keeps and run away from there the next turn. This way you can keep your fortress not owerwhelmed for some time. Spend every coin possible on heavy infantry and don't let skeletons/bats occupy tiles in your keep. If you do let them, this may be fatal to your leader. ;) You may even recruit a spearman or two to "block" a keep tile if this may save your main character.
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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.
  
NOTE: I did use this exact same tactic to beat the scenario on challenging, however, it did require some luck and re-loading. Remember -- when things seem dire, leveling up is the best healing. I saved my leader(why do I always forget his name?) by letting him kill a second-level skeleton archer, but that only happened by miracle - he hit all three times on 40% and didn't get killed by counter-attacks although he had only 3 HP left! I must be lucky :P
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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.
  
Euclid
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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.
  
=== Escape Tunnel ===
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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.  
Remark: The following applies to V 1.4.5 medium difficulty.
 
  
Don't bother recalling HI, they go too slow in caves. Go for a group of mostly mages, and a couple of spearmen. (One keep of units in total should easily be enough.)
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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.
  
Move your units to the east until you encounter trolls and reach a crossroads. A couple of dwarfts will kindly become your allies and keep off the trolls for a few turns. Send a quick spearman to the north where he can pick up a holy amulet (unlike in other campaigns this holy amulet is permanent!). As soon as you have got the holy amulet start to move all your units south without bothering about the trolls or the undead which appear after a number of turns from the direction of your keep.
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=== An Unexpected Appearance ===
 
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* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.
The undead, trolls and dwarves will all fight each other, so after having moved all your units south position one healthy spearman at the end of the cave 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. Move Gweddry to the northeast accompanied by a mage and a spearman (to fight individual trolls coming your way).
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
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** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.
  
Before moving Gweddry to the end of the cave (which ends the level) send the mage to the east past the funny signpost warning you of the troll hole. In the cave the mages discovers a chest containing a troll treasure amounting to 200 gold.
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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''.
  
Following this strategy you should earn a decent early finish bonus plus the 200 extra gold, so you finish with well over 300 gold.
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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.
  
Remark: 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 River Crossing, where you can get an easy 1st turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle. Note that the leader is very hard to kill anyway.
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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.  
  
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===
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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.
  
What you do in this scenario depends on which way you want to go. Going east is harder, 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 free Paladin and several Knights.
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Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups.  
  
Obviously, first kill Mal-Tar. To do this, shoot him with Dacyn and attack him with Gweddry's melee. It probably won't kill him the first turn, so second turn kill the vampire bat he recruits with Dacyn and finish Mal-Tar off with Gweddry.
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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.  
  
Then, recall 2 shock troopers and 1 half-advanced heavy infantry on the side of the castle you are going (so if you are attacking eastward, recall them on the 3 eastern castle hexes). This gives them  a headstart in that direction.
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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.
Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village. Don't worry, he can fend for himself, since the bats usually arrive one at a time and he can kill one per turn.
 
  
Recall any mages with a lot of XP and the spearman you gave the holy amulet in the previous scenario, then go whichever way you are going. You might want to recruit one throw-away cavalryman to go north, since he gives you income and draws away enemies that otherwise would attack your main force from behind.
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
  
===Diverging Campaign Path===
 
 
==== Elven Alliance ====
 
==== Elven Alliance ====
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* '''Objectives''': Defeat enemy leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
  
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.
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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.
  
 
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.
 
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.
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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.
 
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.
  
Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears on turn 7, ignore it unless you have a cavalryman still down there. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. By turn 9, the orcish leader should be dead.
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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.
  
 
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====
 
==== The Undead Border Patrol ====
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* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 24/23/22.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
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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''.
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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.
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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.
  
This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The enemy is relatively weak. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance - recruit 2 suicide cavalrymen to distract the bats. One will probably get enough XP to be worth recalling.
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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.
  
I would use mostly heavy infantry and spearmen with the holy amulet on this level, because mages will only get a +10% to hit from magical. However, as in most scenarios against undead, white mages are very useful.
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==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====
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* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 26.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario.  
  
Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand. This gives you something like a 70% CTH. >)
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Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.
  
(CTH = Chance To Hit).
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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.
  
===== Mal-Ravanal's Capital =====
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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.
  
Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you might also skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.
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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''.
  
This is 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.
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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.
  
By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in postion to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him, he teleported my troops back to the starting castle, so I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to <i>The Northern Outpost</i>.
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=== The Northern Outpost ===
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* '''Objectives''':
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** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.
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** Defeat the undead leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 20.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.
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* '''Other''':
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** A holy amulet is located on the South-West.
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** Horseman units can now be recruited.
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** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.
  
The reason to go here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin and five Knights.  To do this kill six of the Death Knight's troops.  The first kill gets you a Paladin.  Each succeeding kill gets you one more Knight.  They all appear in or around the village southeast of your castle.  To end the scenario, have your cavalry force kill the southwest Necromancer while holding your castle from the assault.  This can be done by turn 14 giving you a sizeable bonus.  You might send expendable cavalrymen north and southeast to distract the enemies, but it won't do much.
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This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''The Undead Border Patrol'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.
  
As of 1.0.2 it's the Bone Shooters that must be killed to release knights.  On the first kill you will get a Paladin as well as the Knight. These seem to all appear around the same village.  Maybe they group around the Paladin.  Each unit pops in with full moves.  If you can use some of them to kill other Bone Shooters, you end up with a substantial cavalry force very quickly.
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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.
  
On easy at least, in 1.0.2, my opponents summoned no Bone Shooters, only Revenants.  It took a while for them to arrive, and I could have killed the NW Necromancer, but I waited it out. I still got paladins and knights for killing Revenants. (vfb)
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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.  
  
As of version 1.5.4 the cavalry (not apparently loyal) are earned by killing the Death Knight's troops. There are a total of one Paladin and five Knights available, but the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you get the Paladin*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" by the time the Death Knight's troops reach your line--units on their own won't last too long with all the ghosts flying around.
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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. 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.  
  
=== The Northern Outpost ===
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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!
  
Reachable both from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' and the ''Elven Alliance'' scenarios.
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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.
  
There are two enemies in this scenario that you must defeat - the undead and the outlaws. The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. Recall a number of shock troopers, a white mage and the spearman who picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios. I addition recruit one mage.
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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.
  
Then send Gweddry to the holy amulet in the south west accompanied by the mage. The spearman and the white mage go straight southwards and help Owaec with the undead. Your shock troopers go to the east and surround one of the villages over there without flagging it. (As they are quite slow-moving, having them already over there saves you time later on.) Once Gweddry picked up the holy amulet, send him and the mage to finish off the undead leader together with your spearman. (Note: Your spearman is very effective against the undead and will likely level up.) That was the easy part.
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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).
  
The main challenge is the criminals. They appear randomly in the villages you flag (one of the villages has assasin that is outlaw leader), but not in those Owaec flags. So don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Since when you capture a village the outlaws surround it, you should surround each village before you capture it, so the enemy surrounds you. This makes it so they can't gang up on one of your units with more than 3 people. Also, when you capture a village, try to kill as many enemies as you can before they get a turn.
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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.
  
Send your your entire force up on the eastern side of the map flagging one village a turn and fighting the bandits. Once you come across the village where the bandid leader hides, concentrate your attacks on him as the bandits are quite strong.
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=== Two Paths ===
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* '''Objective''': Defeat either enemy leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
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* '''Other''':
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** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
  
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.  Slower moving units also have a disadvantage in searching the villages. 
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You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.
  
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 assasination).
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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.
  
/* governor */ Just a note: I had the misfortune of taking a group of men to a village where 5or6 enemies appeared. After taking heavy damage, I retreated my char (low on hitpoints) out of the village. When I recaptured the village the same group of enemies reappeared. Since AI enemies seem to prefer recapturing villages this can allow you to obtain easy experience for weak units a few times.
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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.
  
=== Two Paths ===
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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.
This is a fairly tough level (played in V 1.4.5 on medium difficulty) which took several attempts to get through. In V 1.4.5 you have 16 turns (unlike 12 as in earlier versions) and can choose between going north to attack the orc leader or going north-east to attack the undead leader.
 
  
One option is going north on the very east 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.
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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).
  
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the north-east in a thigh 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 north-east to reach the undead leader before turns run out.
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
  
=== Diverging Campaign Path===
 
 
==== Undead Crossing ====
 
==== Undead Crossing ====
Fighting the undead in this scenario is not the actual problem as they are quite weak. Recall a keep full of shock troopers, white mages and the spearman with the holy amulet (who has likely levelled up by now). Use your faster units to capture the villages in the south-east and move your shock troopers directly to the river crossing.
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* '''Objective''': Defeat the enemy leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 18.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
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You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.
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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.
  
Once you fought of the bats and skeletons (which the above units should handle quite easily), the undead leader summons two cuttlefish which appear in the water between the two crossings. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack. Fight them with a pair of shock troopers accompanied by Gweddry (to give them leadership) and a white mage for healing.
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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.
  
Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.
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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.
  
 
==== The Crossing ====
 
==== The Crossing ====
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* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 24.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
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* '''Other''':
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** Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:
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*** Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit
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*** You get two additional recallable Ogre units
  
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 un-dead 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. (Allefant)
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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.  
  
If you have Holy Gweddry, you can (sometimes) get a 1st turn kill on the 1st undead leader, scarf up all the villages, and return to kill the 2nd undead forces before their leader can recruit anything.  If you don't, the second undead leader will recruit lots of level two units. The orcs will start out across the river, but usually most of them turn back to fight the ogre reinforcements.  Waiting till their first wave hits your shore and wiping them out in the water will probably leave you just enough time to cross the river and find there are only 2 or 3 enemy units left besides the leaders.
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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.
  
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.
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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...
  
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.
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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).
  
Note:  Owaec can move only one hex a turn in the water.
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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.
  
=== Training the Ogres ===
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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''.
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[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.
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[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.
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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. 
  
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, you are fighting the ogres while also trying not to let them reach the rocky borders where they will "escape" (or disappear). Understand how the AI works and that units will attack the weakest units who are closest to leveling.  
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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.
  
Whenever I tried to attack the ogres or surround them or using any other intuitive strategy, I always ended up getting my white mage killed by turn 3 at the latest.  
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[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.
  
Thus try the following which makes keeping all 4 ogres on the green very easy (although I still do not understand why the AI behaves as it does...): Move the white mage and the horseman to the very north outside the moving range of the ogres. Position Gweddry on one of the hills in the west just inside their moving range. For the first two turns the ogres hardly move. Then they start to attack Gweddry which he should be able to withstand. By turn 5 when Gweddry's health starts to wear down, the scenario is over already with all four ogres still on the green and all of your units alive.
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=== Training the Ogres ===
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* '''Objective''': Capture the ogres.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.
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* '''Turns''': Unlimited.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
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* '''Other''':
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** To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.
  
(It's a bit of a digression, but the AI in this case is failing to realize that, though each Ogre has an individually unfavorable attack on Gweddry, all four attacking together would be rather more favorable. So, the AI decides to form a defensive line and wait for the sun to set, when Gweddry's 25% bonus disappears and their attacks are more favorable. Note that this technique generally only works for units with full health on defensible terrain, and may disappear entirely if the AI is improved to consider joint attacks.)
 
  
It is unclear to me however, what the benefit of all four ogres surviving is though.
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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".
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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.
  
Note: Whether or not to use ogres is a matter of playing style.  Once they level up, Ogres are quite a tough unit that deals middling damage, but unfortunately can't advance beyond level 2.  Their upside is that they move at normal speed on hills and cave floor, which makes them your most mobile unit in at least one scenario (''Captured'').  And as they are of neutral alignment, they can sometimes be handy to have around at nighttime.
 
  
 
=== Xenophobia  ===
 
=== Xenophobia  ===
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* '''Objective''': Defeat all enemy leaders.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.
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* '''Other''':
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** A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.
  
In V 1.4.5 on medium difficulty is a very easy and fun level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming aliances. Thus you can use this level to gain some experience for your units, pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the north, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep) e.g. by a shock trooper, and as the actual ogre training camp (see below).
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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).
  
Recall a keep full of shock troopers and send them straight to the north as they are very slow moving. Then recall one or two white mages and recruit about two to four young ogres. Send all of your units straight north to kill the dwarf leader who unwisely sends all his troops for the orcs right at the start and then misses the money to recruit any more troops to defend his keep.
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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.
  
By the time I reached the dwarf leader, the orcs had already killed the elvish leader, so there was two down and only one to go. Use the young ogres on the mountains in the north to fight the remaining dwarves whilst levelling up to ogres.  
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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.
  
By the time you killed the dwarf leader, there should be hardly any enemy troops left, so go straight towards the orc leader and earn a decent early finish bonus. And don't forget to pick up the holy amulet on the way.
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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.
  
The main strategy in this scenario is staying out of the fighting as much as possible, picking off the weaker sides, and in general letting your enemies kill themselves. One successful strategy is to delay moving from your keep for 5-6 turns. Let the other factions weaken each other before you move off. (Although that reduces your early finish bonus, so do not do this if your troops are strong enough.)
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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.
  
By the end of the scenario you should have one or two ogres which comes in quite handy in the next scenarios.
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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.
  
 
=== Lake Vrug ===
 
=== Lake Vrug ===
This is a very confusing hide and seek sceario which is not actually hard, but likely takes you several pointless restarts until you have finally discovered the enemy leaders. (Spoiler: there are three enemy keeps, all north of the river. One is to the very north west (go to the right into the mounts directly after crossing the bridge), one is between the path leading east and the river bank just before the path turns northwards, and one is in the very north at the end of the path. The orc leader resides in the first keep, the gryphon leader in the second, and the third is empty.
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* '''Objective''': Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 30.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.
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* '''Other''':
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** The stronghold provides 100 gold.
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This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.
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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.
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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.
  
Recall two or three shock troopers, two white mages and then recall/recruit as many ogres as possible. (Most of the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which most of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily.) You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead.  
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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.
  
The only challenge in this scenario (apart from finding the keeps) is surviving the first onslaught of gryphoons which starts around turn 4 with quite a number of gryphoons appearing from the north-east. Position your heavy units like shock troopers and ogres very tighly around wounded units as the gryphons and dragons really have quite a large moving range and ignore zones of control and thus mercilessly slay away unprotected injured units. To fight them use heavy melee troops like shock troopers.
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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).
  
As you start to cross the bridge a couple of trolls attack. They are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happy troll-crack away.
+
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.
  
When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres who can move on the high mountains unlike most of your other units.
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[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.
  
 
=== Captured ===
 
=== Captured ===
 +
* '''Objective''': Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.
 +
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
 +
* '''Turns''': Unlimited, then 16.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Rescue leader and two sidekicks.
 +
* '''Other''':
 +
** No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.
 +
** A holy amulet to the South.
  
You start out by running up a tunnel to find some of your companions. If you go back down that way or you will have to face some extremely mean trolls in the narrow tunnel. Instead, follow the tunnel to the north and west and face a few bats as you proceed. At the end of that tunnel, you will enter a throne room where there is a leader and some enemy troops.  
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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.
  
Upon entering the throne room, a group of your wounded troops will appear in a cavern called the "Torture Room" to the east.   They will face a number of assassins and trolls as they leave the Torture Room moving west.  (Hint: Try to get through the prison "door" of the torture room quickly as otherwise the enemy units have an easy time keeping your entire army locked away with only one unit at a time, i.e. the unit standing at the door, being able to take part in the fighting.)
+
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.
  
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the southwest corner. There is quite a comfortable early finish bonus, so you might want to move him there quickly in order to put some money on savings for later scenarios. It should be possible to finish with over 500 gold without making haste, however. You should also flag the numerous villages in a cavern called "The City", a cavern southwest of the Torture Room.  
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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).
  
There is a holy necklace on this level, at coordinates x=12, y=2. Preferrably grab it with a horseman or someting similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios.
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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.
 
 
Note: Most of the orcs are level two and three units.
 
  
 
=== Evacuation ===
 
=== Evacuation ===
This scenario is a little frusting. Not so much because of its difficulty (it is hard but managable with enough high-level recalls and lots of money), but because you ''will'' take some heavy losses of high-level troops.
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* '''Objective''': Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.
 +
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
 +
* '''Turns''': 12.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.
 +
* '''Other''':
 +
** Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).
  
Note: You should have over 400 gold and a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario.
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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.  
  
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the south. In the former case, you will have to accept quite some casualties in fighting the enemy; In the latter case, all your units which are not on the south side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge (including not recalled units, meanly!) are killed by the explosion. In both cases you have to watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns.
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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.  
  
I went for option 2 (killing all leaders). First recruit two to tree keeps full of your typical experienced troops like iron maulers, white mages, and so on. Ogres are also helpful, if you have some left, as they are strong and you will have no use for them in later scnearios. After that recall a keep full of young ogres as cannon fodder.
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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.
  
Start to move you units south and attack the central enemy right away (i.e. do not wait until you have recruited all units). The last recalls before the young ogres split and send half of them to the north-east and the other half to the south-west (otherwise you might not make it to all three leaders in time). Finally, send some young ogres to the north-east and south-west to distract the enemies there for two or three turns.  
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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...).  
  
With all three groops of your units try to focus on attacking the enemy leaders as soon as possible so you do not run out of time. Apart from that, watch out for the level 2 trolls, particularly, as they can (and frequently will...) instantly kill almost any of your units. Best fight them with two white mages or a white mage accompanied by some other unit.
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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.  
  
With a bit of luck and probably some nasty casualties you will have killed all three leaders around turns 10 to 12.
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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.
  
[Garion] In 1.0, I recruited a lot of Cavalry for fodder, spacing them 1 hex apart to establish a ZOC corridor from my castle to the bridge.  They got chewed up very quickly, but they bought me enough time to get out.  Use a few Shock Troopers to guard your rear against the Blue enemy; they're too slow to escape anyway. Remember to recall your slowest units closest to the bridge, to minimize the time they spend in transit. I was able to evacuate 2 Holy Cavaliers, 2 Paladins, a Great Mage, the three heroes, a quick Iron Mauler, 2 White Mages, and a Mage of Light.
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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.
  
[Vladevil] In 1.2.6 what worked best for me was recruiting only fodder for 2 turns, then running away with all the main characters. I let Owaec and the mage first and Gweddry last since he can take some hits. All in all I was finished on the 6th turn without losing any valuable troops.
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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...
  
 
=== The Drowned Plains ===
 
=== The Drowned Plains ===
The Skeletal Dragon will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the south-east).  In getting there, there is a chance the undead (three units mostly level two and an occasional level three) will spring out of the ground near the unit you just moved. Therefore less units are better. Advanced mages, paladins, and other fast-moving units with arcane weapons work well here. To withstand the initial dragon attack you will need very strong units (with more than 50 HP). In order to discover the dragon despite the fog units with a large moving range (and thus large visible area) like horseman are helpful.
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* '''Objective''': Defeat Khrakrahs.
 +
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
 +
* '''Turns''': 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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.
  
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 impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there).
 
  
 
=== Approaching Weldyn ===
 
=== Approaching Weldyn ===
This scenario is fairly easy, but also fun to play. The essence to success is being very fast.
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* '''Objective''': Get Gweddry to Weldyn.
 +
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.
 +
* '''Turns''': 24.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.
  
Recall 6 to 8 fast-moving units with arcane attacks. This should be any fast unit who has picked up a holy amulet in earlier scenarios like horsemen or spearmen plus some level 2 or level 3 mages. Completely forget about heavy infantry or other slow-moving troops of similar kind. Move all your units to the eastern enemy and try to kill him by turn 3 or 4 by the latest. This should be easy, as he is still very weak.
+
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.
  
Then rush over to the western enemy. It will be night by now so not a good time for attacking. If you have a very strong and fast unit (like a dragoon) try to position it on the enemies keep. This trick stops the enemy leader from recruiting more troops despite having plenty of money left. Once your other troops arrive and daylight breaks you should have an easy time finishing of this enemy leader and those of his troops which you ally has not yet killed.
+
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''.
 
 
Then attack the third leader in the south-west in the same manner. If you hurry, you should be able to finish by turn 9 and gain a good early finish bonus.
 
  
 
=== The Council ===
 
=== The Council ===
Line 249: Line 363:
  
 
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===
 
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===
This is an interesting scenario where once again choosing the right strategy is the key to success. Also watch out for the time, as you have only 18 turns to finish.
+
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.
 +
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.
 +
* '''Turns''': 18.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.
 +
* '''Other''':
 +
** 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.
  
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: a weak one in the very north, and two equally strong ones in the south-east and south-west, respectively. It stays nighttime (first and second watch) during the entire scenario which is somewhat uncomfortable, but not a big problem.
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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.
  
Start by recalling all high-level units with arcane attacks (6-8 units max). Then recruit two keeps full of mages. Send your troops straight north and finish of the enemy leader. He is quite weak and even moves onto your island so this should be painlessly accomplished by turn 3.
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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).
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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.
  
Then split your troops: one half moves onto the western shore (along the very border of the map), the other half onto the eastern shore (same). To get across the river use the bridges in the north-west and the north-east, respectively. Let some of the mages stay behind and capture the villages on the island so you do not loose money. The may also assist you allies so they do not fall so quickly and keep the enemy busy.
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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.
  
The rest of the scenario is straight-forward: move both your troops southwards straight towards the enemy keeps and kill the leaders. As they have sent most of their troops onto the island where they are busy happily slaying away your allies, this should be no challenge for your troops. Watch out for the nightgaunts, though, which tend to ambush you or rush for weak units without you seeing them coming.  
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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.  
  
If all goes right you should have killed the remaining two enemy leaders around turns 14 or 15.
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... 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.
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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.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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''.
 
   
 
   
Hint: If you have one or two silver mages available (e.g. the engineer unit you joined you in the Escape scneario, if he has levelled by now) this is quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horseman 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 to weaken your enemy before attacking with your main force. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking.
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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.
 +
 
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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.
  
After killing all enemy leaders, an enemy messenger appears telling you that you have only fought some delegates of the ancient lich Mal-Ravenal. It challenges you to have a duel with Mal-Ravenal instead of letting the armies meet for a final battle. If you accept the challenge, you get to scenario "The Duel". Otherwise you get to "Weldyn Besieged".
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
  
===Diverging Campaign Path===
 
 
==== The Duel ====
 
==== The Duel ====
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you and Mal-Ravanal get to recall/recruit exactly six units each and then have to fight each other. Mal-Ravenal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. In fact, it is quite managable, however.
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* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
 
+
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.
Recall mostly mages of light and other high-level arcance troops. Set them up in a line of 4 units backed up by 2 units at the edge of one of the forsts near your keep. (Your leader should stand in the back up line so he does not accidentaly get killed.)
+
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
 +
* '''Other''':
 +
** You can only recruit for the first turn.
  
Then wait for his troops to reach you, but make sure you are the first to attack. By the time you meet it will be close to nightfall. Do not hesitate to attack, however, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and recruits another 3 units on every first watch.
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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.
  
In your first attack you should be able to kill two enemy units. Try to have at least 5 of your units survive the first round of enemy attacks. Then kill the remaining enemy units near you and move over to Mal-Ravenal straight away who hides by himself on the very border of the map in the mountains. Again, do not wait for daylight, as you can reach him before his reinforcements get to you, so you should have an easy time killing him with your remaining units.
+
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.
  
Spoiler: After killing Mal-Ravanal the campaign ends with a final scene of Gweddry and his companions being honoured by the king.
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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.
  
 
==== Weldyn Besieged ====
 
==== Weldyn Besieged ====
 +
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
 +
* '''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.
 +
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.
 +
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.
  
On versions prior to 1.5.6 the siege is laughably easy to break; just recall a keep full of your best troops and rush Mal-Ravanal in the south.
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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.
 
 
As of 1.5.6 this battle should prove a more substantial challenge. Now the liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario. Sending fast scouts to attack all the liches is not advisable since each lich receives a boost of gold for another round of recruitment after its name is revealed.
 
  
A workable strategy is to recall a group of cavalry with holy amulets and paladins to circle behind the undead horde and terminate the liches. You can draw the liches out of their keeps by positioning a sacrificial horseman within their attack radius. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the lich off in a single turn.
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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.
  
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). If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.
+
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.
  
  
 
[[Category:Campaigns]]
 
[[Category:Campaigns]]
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[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]

Latest revision as of 03:48, 1 February 2023

This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.16+


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.

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.

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.

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.

The Outpost

  • Objectives: Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 16.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.

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.

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.

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.

Defensive approach #1: 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.

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.

Defensive approach #2: 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.

Offensive approach: 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.

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.

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.

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!

Escape Tunnel

  • Objectives: Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 26/24/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
  • Other:
    • Permanent holy amulet in the North.
    • Treasure of 50 gold in Southeast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An Unexpected Appearance

  • Objectives: Defeat either enemy leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.
  • Turns: 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
  • Other:
    • Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
    • Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Magi can generally fend for themselves in towns vs bats, unless the bats arrive in groups.

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.

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.

Diverging Campaign Path

Elven Alliance

  • Objectives: Defeat enemy leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Volas dies or turns run out.
  • Turns: 24/22/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.

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.

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.

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.

There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it. 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.

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.

The Undead Border Patrol

  • Objective: Defeat either enemy leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 24/23/22.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
  • Other:
    • Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.

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.

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.

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.

Finishing early is quite advantageous, as you'll want as much starting gold as possible to improve your chances in the next scenario.

Mal-Ravanal's Capital

  • Objective: Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 26.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
  • Other:
    • The paladin's location is randomly chosen from among the six prison cells at the start of the scenario.

Only reachable from The Undead Border Patrol scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to Northern Outpost.

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.

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.

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.

[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.

The Northern Outpost

  • Objectives:
    • Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.
    • Defeat the undead leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 20.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent.
  • Other:
    • A holy amulet is located on the South-West.
    • Horseman units can now be recruited.
    • Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.

This scenario is reachable from the Elven Alliance, The Undead Border Patrol, and Mal-Ravanal's Capital scenarios.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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).

[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.

Two Paths

  • Objective: Defeat either enemy leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 18/17/16 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
  • Other:
    • Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.

You must choose between going North to attack the orc leader or going Northwest to attack the undead leader.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Diverging Campaign Path

Undead Crossing

  • Objective: Defeat the enemy leader.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
  • Turns: 18.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.

You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.

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.

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.

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.

The Crossing

  • Objective: Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
  • Turns: 24.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
  • Other:
    • Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:
      • Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit
      • You get two additional recallable Ogre units

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.

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.

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...

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).

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.

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.


[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.

[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.

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.

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.

[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.

Training the Ogres

  • Objective: Capture the ogres.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.
  • Turns: Unlimited.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
  • Other:
    • To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.


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".

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.


Xenophobia

  • Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.
  • Turns: 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.
  • Other:
    • A holy amulet near the orcs' keep.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lake Vrug

  • Objective: Defeat the Trolls and Gryphons (Drakes in 1.13), and move Dacyn to the stronghold
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 30.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug.
  • Other:
    • The stronghold provides 100 gold.

This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

[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.

Captured

  • Objective: Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: Unlimited, then 16.
  • Starting units: Rescue leader and two sidekicks.
  • Other:
    • No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.
    • A holy amulet to the South.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Evacuation

  • Objective: Destroy the bridge or defeat all enemies.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 12.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.
  • Other:
    • Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).

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.

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.

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.

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...).

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.

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.

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.

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...

The Drowned Plains

  • Objective: Defeat Khrakrahs.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 28/26/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.

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.

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.

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.


Approaching Weldyn

  • Objective: Get Gweddry to Weldyn.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, or turns run out.
  • Turns: 24.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer.

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.

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.

The Council

Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.

Weldyn Under Attack

  • Objective: Survive until end of turns.
  • Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.
  • Turns: 18.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Engineer, Konrad II.
  • Other:
    • 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

... 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diverging Campaign Path

The Duel

  • Objective: Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
  • Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.
  • Turns: Unlimited.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
  • Other:
    • You can only recruit for the first turn.

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.

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.

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.

Weldyn Besieged

  • Objective: Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
  • 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.
  • Turns: Unlimited.
  • Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.

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.

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.

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.

This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 03:48.