UnderTheBurningSuns

Strategy Guide for Under The Burning Suns:

This campaign takes place eons after the others. At the height of Wesnoth's power, an additional sun was created and magically raised into the sky. Millenia later, entropy has its due. The fertile plains of Wesnoth have turned to desert. There are few survivors from the age of the empire, though it is whispered that humans and dwarves left the planet in some sort of spacecraft. The focus of these scenarios are the Quenoth elves, who are particularly well adapted to living on the sands.

In terms of gameplay, UtBS scenarios tend to be somewhat long. They are not boring, though, as victory conditions typically change several times before the scenario is 'won'.

Scenario 1 "The Morning After"

Some strange meteors have destroyed the homes of our heroes. Kaleh & Nym must search for survivors by capturing all villages. Landing on an empty village will sometimes flush out a few elves. In the beginning, they will be battling Mudcrawlers. Since you have no keep in which to recruit, put the Mudcrawlers to the sword and save all the new units. Note that, unlike other campaigns, Giant Mudcrawlers here will not spawn smaller Mudcrawlers upon their death. Also note that the grey brown trail around the lake is not as good defensively for you as the sand.

The villages will lead you counter-clockwise around the lake. At the southmost portion of the lake you'll find a shattered bridge leading to a shrine in the center of the lake. You don't have to go there right away, but the scenario won't complete until you rescue the Druid and both Shamans there. Be aware that stepping off the island will trigger the obligatory Cuttlefish. If you don't yet have Garak, i'd wait on the island until dawn - this thing will be a bit tough for any of the other characters you currently possess.

Garak the Captain will be found with a few recruits on the Training Ground, which is just to the East of the bridge. It's possible that your people headed for the bridge will trigger this encounter - you'll find a bigger mob of Mudcrawlers than you've seen so far, and likely get some bruises cleaning them out. However, don't go out of your way to level Garak up. He's going to be fighting against you soon enough.

After dealing with the Mudcrawlers and Cuttlefish, keep heading around the lake. The villages on the West side represent the remains of the stables - capturing them will give you Scouts. If the Scouts explore the outer edges of the map, they will find more a few more villages and units, though no more Mudcrawlers. You're now ready for bigger game!

Completing the circuit around the lake reveals the destroyed keep on the North side. The King is pronounced dead, Kaleh now leads the tribe. On turn 11, Xanthos will show up to lead the Undead against the elves. Head north to take the battle to his keep. On turn 16 the Quenoth hunting party returns on the North edge of the map, somewhat westward of Xanthos.

Scenario 2 "Across the Harsh Sands"

There are some special rules in effect for this scenario which makes it play quite a bit different than usual. In particular, your refugees don't have enough food or water to sustain them on their journey. Don't stay in the keep too long - you should be able to handle everything you'll run across with a single castle's worth of troops if you're careful. If you're not careful, it doesn't matter how many troops you get. During every round that isn't night-time, each of your units will sweat off four hit points [on easy, five for medium and six for hard]. Night isn't safe either, as Ghosts randomly appear to try to pick off your weakest units. I recommend a hedgehog formation of six combat units surrounding Zhul. Even better, bring in another Shaman to stand back to back with Zhul. You can put eight troops around them. That's ten in all. Since you start out with four, six more puts you right where you want to be. Out of those six, one would be the healer i mentioned earlier. Another would be a Scout, the other four could be a mix of Fighters, Archers and Hunters.

Now your hedgehog will begin following the remains of the old road East-North-East. You won't be able to keep the hedgehog together if the group travels faster than 5 hexes per turn, so the Scout won't be very effective right now. That's okey, we'll be able to free him soon. You should arrive at the second oasis about dusk, and promptly be attacked by Ghosts and Scorpions. Ignore the Ghosts unless you get a chance to deal a killing blow. As of now, your units [other than Garak] are almost useless against them. Besides, they go away on their own. Sometimes the Ghosts will help you by attacking the Scorpions. After you take out the Scorpions, you'll find Traveler's Ring. This artifact will make the designated unit invulnerable from hunger and thirst. Give it to the Scout, now he can take off on his own.

Depending on how much of a beating you took, you might wish to rest in the oasis. For purposes of this scenario, your units heal eight points each turn in the water. It's like a village, only the defense is bad. Units on grass won't don't lose any hit points due to daylight. After you've rested up, reform the hedgehog. The third oasis is West-North-West from here. If you're looking for extra experience, there is supposed to be a group of Ogres north of the oasis, but i haven't seen them.

The third oasis is guarded by a mixed bag of Bandits,Thugs, Poachers and Trappers. By now you should have levelled up some Heroes and Captains, so it won't be anything you can't handle. The main issue here being the hills that impede your formation. Depending on how effective you are in keeping everybody together, you might have some units go into battle wounded.

When you are done here tack East-North-East to the fourth oasis. Before you get there, you'll meet Elyssa the Fire Mage being attacked by a skeletal army. By all means save her, as she's the only unit you'll have access to this early that's really effective on undead. She can burn out one of these things every turn, just protect her from the counterattacks.

When you arrive at the fourth oasis, you'll find it infested with Ogres. Don't let your units get too tired beating up on them. After the Ogre Chieftain is dead, a Wraith and some Ghosts will take his place unless it is during broad daylight. You will find yourself periodically dogged by these things as you make your way through the campaign. Elyssa really earns her due now.

West-North-West of the castle is a mirage - it only looks like an oasis. If you get anywhere close to the hills roughly centered on the top of the map, you'll trigger a signpost announcing the home of Black Hand bandits. If you see this sign, it means the bad guys have started recruiting. Head due North, then, before his army gets too large. The leader of bandits is called Thorn. When you take him out, he bargains for his life with a vial of Holy Water. This lasts the whole campaign, but is only good for melee, not ranged, weapons. Now you can have TWO units that are useful against undead. I prefer to give it to Nym.

Scenario 3 "A Stirring In The Night"

Your goal here is pretty simple: you have to protect the twelve villages of your people from attack on all sides. You can lose up to six villages without being 'defeated', but it's not recommended: the loss of more than three villages will increase your cost to recruit new troops for the rest of the campaign. The first turn you can reasonably expect the Wraith to seize a village, depending on the actions of the AI. Therefore, make sure to have somebody sitting on every village after that. The focus of the two Spectres will initially be on each other, so that might save the villages until your troops get deployed.

Your Lawful forces will be fighting the forces of the undead in a scenario that entirely takes place in the night. You will find that the damage differentials combined with their high resistance to bladed and piercing weapons will keep your elves on the defensive. To counteract this, you'll need to have good luck, plus judicious use of leadership and the slowing effect of your healers and the Hunters' bolas. If any of your Archers have levelled up to be Desert Rangers, their Backstab ability comes in handy here.

Since Elyssa moves so slowly in the sand, send her to take out the closer southern Spectre. Garak can accompany her. Zhul and whoever has the Holy Water should head toward the northenmost bonfire, but not rest next to any villages. Your first keep of recruits should include two Scouts. The Wraith will attack Nym or more likely Zhul. Thereafter use the scouts to keep the Wraith pinned down in the light while Nym finishes it off. Zhul will probably need to go to a village to heal after this.

You're unlikely to be able to finish off both the Spectres, but you can have destroyed the southern army and reduced the northern one by turn seven. That's when the Orcish contingent shows up in the mountains. These are certainly easier to deal with - you can properly stab them. Just stay out of the mountains - you lose your defensive advantage the moment you step off the sand. Their leader, Ganthos, has an income, but no keep. If you let him, he will sneak down the western edge of the map and take over yours while his minions ravage your villages. If you are still facing significant numbers of Undead, the Orcs might just decide to attack some of those for you.

Note that Garak is fated to die during this scenario. One of the Spectres will possess Garak in an attempt to continue their duel, this happens even if you have destroyed a Spectre. The surviving Spectre uses some deep magic to block out the dawn, and the victory conditions change to force you to destroy either Garak or the surviving Spectre. If you do take out both Spectres, then dawn happens, but the two still kill Garak to take their revenge on you. If by chance you had given Thorn's Holy Water to Garak, it won't be helping you after this...