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Sceptre of Fire

2013-09-26T06:54:26Z

Adam12: /* The Dragon */

==Campaign Strategy==

You fight this campaign almost entirely with the four classic dwarven units: fighter, thunderer, scout and guardsman. Healers are entirely missing, and villages become a key resource for army regeneration. Given the circumstances, your levelling strategy should lean strongly to the offensive.

In the many scenarios, the village distribution is strongly biased against you, and conquering a village cluster is the key to victory. Your main opponents are trolls, other dwarves and elves, and you are mostly fighting in caverns and mountains.

In this campaign, Dwarvish Fighters can advance to Runesmiths as well as Steelclads. Runemasters are useful overall and absolutely essential for forcing the caves of the Shorbear clan, and you should consider training at least one or two of them in addition to the two that join you. Dwarvish Lords are critical for the rearguard action against Berserkers in "The Dragon", and it is wise to have at least three of them in your army.

The guardsman line is only useful early on, since their pierce attack is useless against trolls and too weak for storming the Shorbear caves or discouraging berserkers in "The Dragon". However, having a few of them on your recall list will be useful for the final scenario. Thunderers do their share as your ranged unit, and scouts as screening forces, but make sure to keep a strong emphasis on the fighter line. Once Thursagan joins you, make it a priority to level him up all the way up to a Dwarvish Arcanister; he's the only unit able to do it, and by doing so he will become a truly frightening unit for your enemies.

==Scenarios==

=== A Bargain Is Struck ===
* Objectives:
** Move the caravans and Alanin to the dwarvish castle, or..
** Defeat the elvish leader.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Haldric II, Alanin or one of the caravans die or time runs out.
* Turns: 24.
* Starting units: Rugnur and Alanin.
* Other: It is probably easier and quicker to defeat the elvish leader.

After a short dialogue, you have to get four caravans (five on ''hard'') to your keep in the north. This is a straightforward mission. Merely move the caravans towards your keep. Recruit two or three units for Rugnur and send them south at all speed (scouts work well here, provided you are playing on 1.7.x). Use Alanin to guard the caravans as well as you can, until they get out of reach of the elves. Normally, your human allies wipe out the elven attack before your troops can get stuck in, but if you can get some experience, all the better for the next mission. However, unless you want to try a very unusual strategy, you probably won't have the chance to provide much experience to many units. As mentioned, two or three recruits is probably enough, so you can focus your experience on Rugnur and Alanin.

Because the humans are so effective against the elves, you may be able to simply ignore the caravans and go kill the elvish leader. Remember elves are tough to hit in forest, so concentrate on picking off the ones who venture into the grassland and let the humans take their licks against the dug-in elves.

[Thrash: In 1.8.4 on hard the above seems to be terribly out of date. The elves kick the human's butt and the objective becomes for the dwarves to kill the elven leader before the elves cause a loss.]

Don't waste time moving your dwarves to the elvish keep. Glildur receives a significant amout of gold around turn 10, allowing him to recruit wave after wave of new elves to fight you, and it can get unmanageable if you let him recruit with impunity by then.

=== Closing The Gates ===
* Objectives: Close the gates by having units standing on all six glyphs simultaneously.
* Lose if: Rugnur or Baglur die or time runs out.
* Turns: 15.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, 4 Guardsmen (5 on ''easy'').
* Other
** If there are any elves in the caves after you shut the gates, you must kill them.
** Any units outside the caves when the gates close will die; pull your units back.

This involves hunting down some trolls and stalling the elves. Firstly, recall and recruit a substantial amount of thunderers and fighters. Move all your guardsmen down towards the three towers, those two glyphs can be easily covered near the end. Move a couple of thunderers down that way as well.

You have to activate six glyphs and, as you can notice, two of them are near the main entrance and easy to activate. You will find the other four going through the two main passages inside the cave—one directly south of your keep and one to the west. Send teams composed of about 3 or 4 dwarves (mixing fighters, thunderers and perhaps scouts if you like using them) down each passage, and focus the rest of your force on the entrance, resisting the elves. The terrain will be very advantageous to your army so the challenge should not be too complicated.

Once the trolls are dead, place dwarves on each of those fours glyphs. You will notice that there are a couple of small additional entrances to the cave at the end of each passage. Don't worry, turning "on" the glyphs closest to those openings will seal them. You might even shut one or two trolls outside this way.

Once those four glyphs are done you're ready to finish your mission. However, you might as well defend the gate until turn 14 or so, picking up as much experience as possible (try to get Rugnor at least to level 2). Then, pull all your troops back behind the gate (any left outside will automatically die, and those trapped in the door will be squished) and place soldiers on the two remaining glyphs.

=== Searching for the Runecrafter ===
* Objectives:
*# Reach Thursagan with a non-gryphon unit.
*# Bring Thursagan back to the caves.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg, Thursagan or Baglur die or time runs out.
* Turns: 20.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin.

Once you move a unit a little far from the cave, a loyal gryphon named Krawg will show up, along with a friendly Gryphon Rider. Thursagan is hiding in a village placed at random inside the map. You have to go find him and bring him back to the signpost in your keep. He won't follow a Gryphon, so you have to send a dwarf (or Alanin).

The monsters you'll face are Wolves, Ogres, Trolls and Woses. Maintain a defensive position in your mountain stronghold while your Gryphons scout the map to locate Thursagan's village, then send someone else to bring him back.

The Trolls, Woses and Ogres hit hard, so concentrate on killing them quickly when they reach you. Don't let the wolves flank you and get inside your perimeter.

It will be useful to recall/recruit scouts, who are good against woses, along with thunderers and fighters. Try not to over-recruit; this map won't have any other villages other than the ones close to your keep, and Thursagan's home.

=== Gathering Materials ===
* Objective: Mine one gold deposit and two coal deposits (see below).
* Lose if: Rugnur or Thursagan die or time runs out.
* Turns: 40/37/34 (easy/medium/hard).
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Thursagan and two loyal Runesmiths.
* Other
** To mine you must recruit a Dwarvish Miner, move him to the deposit and move him back to the keep.
** The map is randomized so your map may play slightly differently.

The coal deposits are near the northwest troll and the southeast troll. The gold deposit is towards the middle. (The map layout is randomized, but the minerals are always in these areas). In order to mine, you must recruit a Dwarvish Miner, move him to the deposit and move him back to the keep. The mining can be done with just one Miner, but make it a priority to grab the deposits as quickly as you can. The speed of the miners will be of great help to keep them safe from harm, but still be careful and protect them whenever necessary.

The gold reserve may be the easiest one to snatch first, and maybe the northwest coal could also be grabbed quickly before you kill the enemies up there. A sensible strategy is to recruit about 2 keepfuls of units and get to the crossroad area quickly. The goblins are numerous but weak. The trick here is to hold the northeast against Troll Whelps and Ogres, the southeast against more Whelps and Rocklobbers and still have enough units to kill all the goblins.

The AI tends to avoid attacking your Runesmiths/Thursagan when they are on good defensive ground. You can use this to your advantage when clogging up passageways.

Remember to move your Miner to and from the deposits as quickly as possible. In general, the order of things to do besides that is:

* Get your troops into the middle clearing and dig in.
* Kill the goblins and their leader.
* Kill the last of the wave from the northeast and reinforce the southeast.
* Move some of your forces to finish the northeast leader and the rest to reinforce the southeast.
* Push to the southeast (there are villages down here) and get the last leader.

The easiest order to get the deposits is probably gold, northwest coal, southeast coal.

'''Alternative Strategy'''

In 1.8.2 on the Steelclad (Challenging) difficulty the ogres and goblins fight each other, so you can let them weaken each other while you go south and slaughter the trolls there. Once you've dealt with the south trolls you can use the villages there to heal your troops before going north to finish the survivors (most likely the ogres, as the goblins are too weak). If you choose this strategy be careful not to spend too much time waiting for the fighting in the north to end.

[Thrash: In my experience the enemies seemed to prefer fighting each other instead of the player's units. If you just hang back a turn or two, they will starting fighting and then you can pick off weak units for XP and wade in after a couple turns when they've weakened each other. Also, recruiting 3 miners makes things much easier in turns of time (I wouldn't be surprised if it was impossible with one miner on hard).]

=== Hills of the Shorbear Clan ===
* Objectives: Defeat the dwarf leader and have all heroes in the cave while no enemies are in it.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg, Thursagan or Durstorn die or time runs out.
* Turns: 24.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Alanin, Baglur, Krawg, Thursagan, Durstorn, two new loyal units—a Thunderguard and a Steelclad.

Since Durstorn started a fight, you have to kick the dwarves out of their cave. The problem is that some elves show up and start fighting you too. So you have to take over the cave '''and''' kick everyone else out.

You can use Krawg and another Gryphon to go around the map and flag lots of villages. You'll get lots of gold and can use that to recruit a couple of fresh units if you need after you capture the Shorbears' keep.

The scenario is pretty straightforward. When fighting the dwarves use the terrain to your advantage. A dwarf on a mountain tile is only hit 30% of the time... unless you are attacking with a Runesmith/Runemaster. Their magical attacks (70% chance to hit) can make all the difference. Once you are in the cave and fighting off the elves, seal up the exits when you can. Now all you need to do is wipe out any stragglers and you are done.

=== Towards the Caves ===
* Objectives:
** Move Rugnur to the north-east cave entrance.
** Move Alanin to the southern border east of the river.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg or Thursagan die or time runs out.
* Turns: 12.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Krawg, Thursagan and Alanin.

It is important to realize that the two objectives do not need to be accomplished simultaneously; once Alanin touches the southern border, east of the river, he disappears and his part is done. So, you can just send him straight south from turn 1. Have him go along the western edge of the river and cross over when he is at the bottom. The southeastern elves really don't like Alanin, so be careful not to attract too much attention. (Note that you can use that to your advantage to slow the advance of those elves).

This scenario is an exercise in holding a defensible position. The problem is that position has six entrances and you are up against a bunch of level 2 attackers. Recruit 2 or 3 keeps full of soldiers, sneak Alanin and Rugnur out (maybe with a few units, perhaps Gryphons, for cover and village flagging), and dig in. Rotate your units and try not to lose too many. Since most of the attackers are level 2, you can level some units with a couple of kills. Stay on good defensive ground and don't try anything crazy. It is also possible to win by killing all the leaders, but good luck with that.

[Thrash: I found just running for it worked for me. Alanin is able to make it to the southern edge before any elves can reach him by running down the west bank and crossing over. For Rugnur I recruited 6 sacrificial scouts and used them to screen the northern elves and Rugnur was able to make the cave with the elves on his heels.]

[Sojourner: With WN 10.0, running Alanin south down the west side of the river worked like a charm. I ran Thurgasin into the NW caves to keep him safe. The tricky part was getting Rugnur to the NE cave. Since even a single hex makes the differance, I could only recruit one keep load and then Rugnur had to start running on turn-1. Level 1 scouts as a screen didn't work because the Elvish archers slaughtered them. I used a full keep of Level 1 griffins (all ultimately sacrificed) as a screen, and had Rugnur go through the 5-hex of mountains to the East (32/10). But it was very close because I had to use Krawg at the last to help screen, yet not allow him to get zone-locked and killed. Possible, but tricky.]

=== Outriding the Outriders ===
* Objectives: Reach the outpost in the south.
* Lose if: Alanin dies or time runs out.
* Turns: 12.
* Starting units: Alanin.

Your mission is to run south as quickly as possible. The elvish outriders would easily catch up with you and defeat you, if it were not for the huge help you receive from villagers. Every time you capture a village, two (or three for the first village you capture) new loyalists will come out to help you against the elves. You will have them just for this scenario, so you don't have to worry too much about saving them or leveling them up. If you level a Spearman, the best choice is probably Javelineer. Pikeman and Javelineer have pierce attacks (which are best against the Outriders) but the Javelineer has the ranged attack too.

The main goal is to slow the elves down (which you can of course do by killing them). If a unit has 2 or 3 HP, don't attack with it. Make one of the Outriders waste his turn by killing it. Try and use your units ZOC and the terrain to slow the elves down. The Outriders are slow on ice, hills and mountains. If you have the option of falling back (or moving up) and combining two villages worth of defenders, that's probably a good idea.

There are two villages you can reach with your first move. Go to the southernmost one. This sums up the whole ''modus operandi'' for Alanin: move as far south as you can every turn. Deviate slightly to capture villages, but not too much. You will need most of every turn's moves to get to the outpost in time.

=== The Dragon ===
* Objectives: Get Rugnur, Thursagan and Krawg to the end of the tunnel; then move Thursagan to the forge and defend him for 9 turns
* Lose if: Rugnur, Thursagan or Krawg die
* Turns: Unlimited.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, and Baglur.

Strong dwarves and elves will come from the west in great numbers. As the dialogue suggests, trying to make a stand in your initial keep would be practically impossible, and your only choice is to recruit as much as you can in the first turn, and flee north then south towards the bats as quickly as possible.

You have to cover a lot of terrain, but the path is mostly straightforward, and at its end you will reach a small section where you will find the forge where the Sceptre can be built. That is a good place to finally make your stand. Until then, your job is to move quickly, dealing with bats coming from the cave, and dealing with the dwarves from behind. The elves move much more slowly so you'll probably deal with them later on.

Regarding the bats, they would normally be just a small annoyance, except that in this case there are lots of them, so they are challenging in their own right. The best way to kill them is with Scouts' ranged attack or Runesmiths' magical attack. They are level 0 (unless you're playing on ''hard'', where you'll find some level ones) and so don't exert a zone of control. Khrakrahs the dragon might come out but there is no special advantage in killing it. Just move past it and let the elvish army deal with it.

As for the dwarves coming from behind, the biggest challenge is that there are many berserkers among them, and there's a good chance a few of them are quick, so they'll catch up with you in no time. Try to leave Dwarvish Lords and Runemasters with good HP on the rear of your army to deal with them.

Once you finally reach the forge, you may choose to move Thursagan into it quickly, in which case he disappears and the rest of your mission is to survive for 9 more turns, or you can play it patiently and milk as much as experience as you can. In this case, don't move Thursagan into the forge yet, and make sure to advance him up to level 4 if you haven't done so already.

''Note'': Apparently this scenario played very differently in versions previous to 1.10.x, and the suggestions given by this walkthrough mentioned that the elves don't follow you. This no longer applies, and the following comments left here in the past by other players reflect that.

[Thash: Contrary to what this says, the elves and the dwarves did come after me in a big way after a few turns, but I was able to pick a good spot in the tunnel and hold them off by just plugging the tunnel - not attacking - and rotating wounded units through. Also be care of which units you send SW from starting point, beserkers can come running out of darkness and kill Krawg easily.]

[Sojourner: With WN 10.0 the elves and dwarves attacked immediately and relentlessly with level 2 and 3 units. I suggest running flat out until you're past the wide spot where you first see the dragon and then start delaying tactics while you race Thursagan to the forge. The best place to delay are the narrow two-hex choke points on the final SW run towards the forge. Make your main stand there. Expect to lose/sacrifice a fair number of units.]

=== Caverns of Flame ===
* Objectives: Move onto the glyph that makes the volcano erupt; then kill all the elves
* Lose if: Rugnur, Thursagan or Krawg die.
* Turns: Unlimited.
* Starting units: All of your available units, including your entire recall list.

You start with your entire army and won't have any real chance to recruit any new units. What you start with is all you get. The cave is populated by Trolls and a few Orcish Warriors guarding the glyph. Your job is to get onto the glyph and then kill all the elves.

After a turn or two a bunch of dwarves and elves appear at the mouth of the cave (so get your units moving). Just like in the last scenario the elves move very slowly so you'll fight the dwarves separately from the elves. Keep your force together. You face a lot of strong enemies and will need to rotate all your troops to prevent too much attrition. Take advantage of the fact that you are fighting so many level 2 and 3 units to level any of your troops that still can improve.

One way to play this scenario is to move everyone to the westernmost cavern. It has a good bottleneck to hold the dwarves at and plenty of villages to heal. Once you are dug in, send Rugnur, Thursagan (who is an absolute badass now that he has the Sceptre of Fire) and a few other units south to the glyph. Kill the orc guards and step on the glyph. Once you do that you are instructed to kill all the elves before they escape. Luckily for you, stepping on the glyph also unleashes the Troll Warriors '''behind''' the elves. The elves have no chance. The trolls will quickly slaughter them. You can help if you want, but the end is inevitable. Make sure Thursagan and Rugnur don't fall in lava.

To keep Krawg out of trouble you can move him onto one of the lava squares. There are several which are only accessible/attackable by flying units. There are no flying enemies so Krawg will be safe.

Don't worry about the Troll Warriors. They cannot get out until you step on the glyph. By that time it probably doesn't matter.

'''Alternative Strategy'''

A much more direct approach is to simply ignore the trolls coming from the internal caves. Use a few units to slow them down (guardsmen are very effective) and move your heavy hitters south directly into the glyph chamber. Kill the guards as quickly as possible and take defensive positions around the glyph while watching the elves and trolls fight each other. When you're ready, step on the glyph and unleash the Troll Warriors on the elves. Then it's only a matter of surviving until the elves are slaughtered. You might suffer some losses, but as long as the heroes survive it doesn't matter. If the elves don't get entirely wiped out in a few turns, the cave will end up entirely covered in lava, killing everyone. Either way, you win and proceed to the campaign's Epilogue.

-shadowblack

[[Category:Campaigns]]
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]

Sceptre of Fire

2013-09-26T06:53:44Z

Adam12: /* The Dragon */

==Campaign Strategy==

You fight this campaign almost entirely with the four classic dwarven units: fighter, thunderer, scout and guardsman. Healers are entirely missing, and villages become a key resource for army regeneration. Given the circumstances, your levelling strategy should lean strongly to the offensive.

In the many scenarios, the village distribution is strongly biased against you, and conquering a village cluster is the key to victory. Your main opponents are trolls, other dwarves and elves, and you are mostly fighting in caverns and mountains.

In this campaign, Dwarvish Fighters can advance to Runesmiths as well as Steelclads. Runemasters are useful overall and absolutely essential for forcing the caves of the Shorbear clan, and you should consider training at least one or two of them in addition to the two that join you. Dwarvish Lords are critical for the rearguard action against Berserkers in "The Dragon", and it is wise to have at least three of them in your army.

The guardsman line is only useful early on, since their pierce attack is useless against trolls and too weak for storming the Shorbear caves or discouraging berserkers in "The Dragon". However, having a few of them on your recall list will be useful for the final scenario. Thunderers do their share as your ranged unit, and scouts as screening forces, but make sure to keep a strong emphasis on the fighter line. Once Thursagan joins you, make it a priority to level him up all the way up to a Dwarvish Arcanister; he's the only unit able to do it, and by doing so he will become a truly frightening unit for your enemies.

==Scenarios==

=== A Bargain Is Struck ===
* Objectives:
** Move the caravans and Alanin to the dwarvish castle, or..
** Defeat the elvish leader.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Haldric II, Alanin or one of the caravans die or time runs out.
* Turns: 24.
* Starting units: Rugnur and Alanin.
* Other: It is probably easier and quicker to defeat the elvish leader.

After a short dialogue, you have to get four caravans (five on ''hard'') to your keep in the north. This is a straightforward mission. Merely move the caravans towards your keep. Recruit two or three units for Rugnur and send them south at all speed (scouts work well here, provided you are playing on 1.7.x). Use Alanin to guard the caravans as well as you can, until they get out of reach of the elves. Normally, your human allies wipe out the elven attack before your troops can get stuck in, but if you can get some experience, all the better for the next mission. However, unless you want to try a very unusual strategy, you probably won't have the chance to provide much experience to many units. As mentioned, two or three recruits is probably enough, so you can focus your experience on Rugnur and Alanin.

Because the humans are so effective against the elves, you may be able to simply ignore the caravans and go kill the elvish leader. Remember elves are tough to hit in forest, so concentrate on picking off the ones who venture into the grassland and let the humans take their licks against the dug-in elves.

[Thrash: In 1.8.4 on hard the above seems to be terribly out of date. The elves kick the human's butt and the objective becomes for the dwarves to kill the elven leader before the elves cause a loss.]

Don't waste time moving your dwarves to the elvish keep. Glildur receives a significant amout of gold around turn 10, allowing him to recruit wave after wave of new elves to fight you, and it can get unmanageable if you let him recruit with impunity by then.

=== Closing The Gates ===
* Objectives: Close the gates by having units standing on all six glyphs simultaneously.
* Lose if: Rugnur or Baglur die or time runs out.
* Turns: 15.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, 4 Guardsmen (5 on ''easy'').
* Other
** If there are any elves in the caves after you shut the gates, you must kill them.
** Any units outside the caves when the gates close will die; pull your units back.

This involves hunting down some trolls and stalling the elves. Firstly, recall and recruit a substantial amount of thunderers and fighters. Move all your guardsmen down towards the three towers, those two glyphs can be easily covered near the end. Move a couple of thunderers down that way as well.

You have to activate six glyphs and, as you can notice, two of them are near the main entrance and easy to activate. You will find the other four going through the two main passages inside the cave—one directly south of your keep and one to the west. Send teams composed of about 3 or 4 dwarves (mixing fighters, thunderers and perhaps scouts if you like using them) down each passage, and focus the rest of your force on the entrance, resisting the elves. The terrain will be very advantageous to your army so the challenge should not be too complicated.

Once the trolls are dead, place dwarves on each of those fours glyphs. You will notice that there are a couple of small additional entrances to the cave at the end of each passage. Don't worry, turning "on" the glyphs closest to those openings will seal them. You might even shut one or two trolls outside this way.

Once those four glyphs are done you're ready to finish your mission. However, you might as well defend the gate until turn 14 or so, picking up as much experience as possible (try to get Rugnor at least to level 2). Then, pull all your troops back behind the gate (any left outside will automatically die, and those trapped in the door will be squished) and place soldiers on the two remaining glyphs.

=== Searching for the Runecrafter ===
* Objectives:
*# Reach Thursagan with a non-gryphon unit.
*# Bring Thursagan back to the caves.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg, Thursagan or Baglur die or time runs out.
* Turns: 20.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin.

Once you move a unit a little far from the cave, a loyal gryphon named Krawg will show up, along with a friendly Gryphon Rider. Thursagan is hiding in a village placed at random inside the map. You have to go find him and bring him back to the signpost in your keep. He won't follow a Gryphon, so you have to send a dwarf (or Alanin).

The monsters you'll face are Wolves, Ogres, Trolls and Woses. Maintain a defensive position in your mountain stronghold while your Gryphons scout the map to locate Thursagan's village, then send someone else to bring him back.

The Trolls, Woses and Ogres hit hard, so concentrate on killing them quickly when they reach you. Don't let the wolves flank you and get inside your perimeter.

It will be useful to recall/recruit scouts, who are good against woses, along with thunderers and fighters. Try not to over-recruit; this map won't have any other villages other than the ones close to your keep, and Thursagan's home.

=== Gathering Materials ===
* Objective: Mine one gold deposit and two coal deposits (see below).
* Lose if: Rugnur or Thursagan die or time runs out.
* Turns: 40/37/34 (easy/medium/hard).
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Thursagan and two loyal Runesmiths.
* Other
** To mine you must recruit a Dwarvish Miner, move him to the deposit and move him back to the keep.
** The map is randomized so your map may play slightly differently.

The coal deposits are near the northwest troll and the southeast troll. The gold deposit is towards the middle. (The map layout is randomized, but the minerals are always in these areas). In order to mine, you must recruit a Dwarvish Miner, move him to the deposit and move him back to the keep. The mining can be done with just one Miner, but make it a priority to grab the deposits as quickly as you can. The speed of the miners will be of great help to keep them safe from harm, but still be careful and protect them whenever necessary.

The gold reserve may be the easiest one to snatch first, and maybe the northwest coal could also be grabbed quickly before you kill the enemies up there. A sensible strategy is to recruit about 2 keepfuls of units and get to the crossroad area quickly. The goblins are numerous but weak. The trick here is to hold the northeast against Troll Whelps and Ogres, the southeast against more Whelps and Rocklobbers and still have enough units to kill all the goblins.

The AI tends to avoid attacking your Runesmiths/Thursagan when they are on good defensive ground. You can use this to your advantage when clogging up passageways.

Remember to move your Miner to and from the deposits as quickly as possible. In general, the order of things to do besides that is:

* Get your troops into the middle clearing and dig in.
* Kill the goblins and their leader.
* Kill the last of the wave from the northeast and reinforce the southeast.
* Move some of your forces to finish the northeast leader and the rest to reinforce the southeast.
* Push to the southeast (there are villages down here) and get the last leader.

The easiest order to get the deposits is probably gold, northwest coal, southeast coal.

'''Alternative Strategy'''

In 1.8.2 on the Steelclad (Challenging) difficulty the ogres and goblins fight each other, so you can let them weaken each other while you go south and slaughter the trolls there. Once you've dealt with the south trolls you can use the villages there to heal your troops before going north to finish the survivors (most likely the ogres, as the goblins are too weak). If you choose this strategy be careful not to spend too much time waiting for the fighting in the north to end.

[Thrash: In my experience the enemies seemed to prefer fighting each other instead of the player's units. If you just hang back a turn or two, they will starting fighting and then you can pick off weak units for XP and wade in after a couple turns when they've weakened each other. Also, recruiting 3 miners makes things much easier in turns of time (I wouldn't be surprised if it was impossible with one miner on hard).]

=== Hills of the Shorbear Clan ===
* Objectives: Defeat the dwarf leader and have all heroes in the cave while no enemies are in it.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg, Thursagan or Durstorn die or time runs out.
* Turns: 24.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Alanin, Baglur, Krawg, Thursagan, Durstorn, two new loyal units—a Thunderguard and a Steelclad.

Since Durstorn started a fight, you have to kick the dwarves out of their cave. The problem is that some elves show up and start fighting you too. So you have to take over the cave '''and''' kick everyone else out.

You can use Krawg and another Gryphon to go around the map and flag lots of villages. You'll get lots of gold and can use that to recruit a couple of fresh units if you need after you capture the Shorbears' keep.

The scenario is pretty straightforward. When fighting the dwarves use the terrain to your advantage. A dwarf on a mountain tile is only hit 30% of the time... unless you are attacking with a Runesmith/Runemaster. Their magical attacks (70% chance to hit) can make all the difference. Once you are in the cave and fighting off the elves, seal up the exits when you can. Now all you need to do is wipe out any stragglers and you are done.

=== Towards the Caves ===
* Objectives:
** Move Rugnur to the north-east cave entrance.
** Move Alanin to the southern border east of the river.
* Lose if: Rugnur, Alanin, Krawg or Thursagan die or time runs out.
* Turns: 12.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Krawg, Thursagan and Alanin.

It is important to realize that the two objectives do not need to be accomplished simultaneously; once Alanin touches the southern border, east of the river, he disappears and his part is done. So, you can just send him straight south from turn 1. Have him go along the western edge of the river and cross over when he is at the bottom. The southeastern elves really don't like Alanin, so be careful not to attract too much attention. (Note that you can use that to your advantage to slow the advance of those elves).

This scenario is an exercise in holding a defensible position. The problem is that position has six entrances and you are up against a bunch of level 2 attackers. Recruit 2 or 3 keeps full of soldiers, sneak Alanin and Rugnur out (maybe with a few units, perhaps Gryphons, for cover and village flagging), and dig in. Rotate your units and try not to lose too many. Since most of the attackers are level 2, you can level some units with a couple of kills. Stay on good defensive ground and don't try anything crazy. It is also possible to win by killing all the leaders, but good luck with that.

[Thrash: I found just running for it worked for me. Alanin is able to make it to the southern edge before any elves can reach him by running down the west bank and crossing over. For Rugnur I recruited 6 sacrificial scouts and used them to screen the northern elves and Rugnur was able to make the cave with the elves on his heels.]

[Sojourner: With WN 10.0, running Alanin south down the west side of the river worked like a charm. I ran Thurgasin into the NW caves to keep him safe. The tricky part was getting Rugnur to the NE cave. Since even a single hex makes the differance, I could only recruit one keep load and then Rugnur had to start running on turn-1. Level 1 scouts as a screen didn't work because the Elvish archers slaughtered them. I used a full keep of Level 1 griffins (all ultimately sacrificed) as a screen, and had Rugnur go through the 5-hex of mountains to the East (32/10). But it was very close because I had to use Krawg at the last to help screen, yet not allow him to get zone-locked and killed. Possible, but tricky.]

=== Outriding the Outriders ===
* Objectives: Reach the outpost in the south.
* Lose if: Alanin dies or time runs out.
* Turns: 12.
* Starting units: Alanin.

Your mission is to run south as quickly as possible. The elvish outriders would easily catch up with you and defeat you, if it were not for the huge help you receive from villagers. Every time you capture a village, two (or three for the first village you capture) new loyalists will come out to help you against the elves. You will have them just for this scenario, so you don't have to worry too much about saving them or leveling them up. If you level a Spearman, the best choice is probably Javelineer. Pikeman and Javelineer have pierce attacks (which are best against the Outriders) but the Javelineer has the ranged attack too.

The main goal is to slow the elves down (which you can of course do by killing them). If a unit has 2 or 3 HP, don't attack with it. Make one of the Outriders waste his turn by killing it. Try and use your units ZOC and the terrain to slow the elves down. The Outriders are slow on ice, hills and mountains. If you have the option of falling back (or moving up) and combining two villages worth of defenders, that's probably a good idea.

There are two villages you can reach with your first move. Go to the southernmost one. This sums up the whole ''modus operandi'' for Alanin: move as far south as you can every turn. Deviate slightly to capture villages, but not too much. You will need most of every turn's moves to get to the outpost in time.

=== The Dragon ===
* Objectives: Get Rugnur, Thursagan and Krawg to the end of the tunnel; then move Thursagan to the forge and defend him for 9 turns
* Lose if: Rugnur, Thursagan or Krawg die
* Turns: Unlimited.
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, and Baglur.

Strong dwarves and elves will come from the west in great numbers. As the dialogue suggests, trying to make a stand in your initial keep would be practically impossible, and your only choice is to recruit as much as you can in the first turn, and flee north towards the bats as quickly as possible.

You have to cover a lot of terrain, but the path is mostly straightforward, and at its end you will reach a small section where you will find the forge where the Sceptre can be built. That is a good place to finally make your stand. Until then, your job is to move quickly, dealing with bats coming from the cave, and dealing with the dwarves from behind. The elves move much more slowly so you'll probably deal with them later on.

Regarding the bats, they would normally be just a small annoyance, except that in this case there are lots of them, so they are challenging in their own right. The best way to kill them is with Scouts' ranged attack or Runesmiths' magical attack. They are level 0 (unless you're playing on ''hard'', where you'll find some level ones) and so don't exert a zone of control. Khrakrahs the dragon might come out but there is no special advantage in killing it. Just move past it and let the elvish army deal with it.

As for the dwarves coming from behind, the biggest challenge is that there are many berserkers among them, and there's a good chance a few of them are quick, so they'll catch up with you in no time. Try to leave Dwarvish Lords and Runemasters with good HP on the rear of your army to deal with them.

Once you finally reach the forge, you may choose to move Thursagan into it quickly, in which case he disappears and the rest of your mission is to survive for 9 more turns, or you can play it patiently and milk as much as experience as you can. In this case, don't move Thursagan into the forge yet, and make sure to advance him up to level 4 if you haven't done so already.

''Note'': Apparently this scenario played very differently in versions previous to 1.10.x, and the suggestions given by this walkthrough mentioned that the elves don't follow you. This no longer applies, and the following comments left here in the past by other players reflect that.

[Thash: Contrary to what this says, the elves and the dwarves did come after me in a big way after a few turns, but I was able to pick a good spot in the tunnel and hold them off by just plugging the tunnel - not attacking - and rotating wounded units through. Also be care of which units you send SW from starting point, beserkers can come running out of darkness and kill Krawg easily.]

[Sojourner: With WN 10.0 the elves and dwarves attacked immediately and relentlessly with level 2 and 3 units. I suggest running flat out until you're past the wide spot where you first see the dragon and then start delaying tactics while you race Thursagan to the forge. The best place to delay are the narrow two-hex choke points on the final SW run towards the forge. Make your main stand there. Expect to lose/sacrifice a fair number of units.]

=== Caverns of Flame ===
* Objectives: Move onto the glyph that makes the volcano erupt; then kill all the elves
* Lose if: Rugnur, Thursagan or Krawg die.
* Turns: Unlimited.
* Starting units: All of your available units, including your entire recall list.

You start with your entire army and won't have any real chance to recruit any new units. What you start with is all you get. The cave is populated by Trolls and a few Orcish Warriors guarding the glyph. Your job is to get onto the glyph and then kill all the elves.

After a turn or two a bunch of dwarves and elves appear at the mouth of the cave (so get your units moving). Just like in the last scenario the elves move very slowly so you'll fight the dwarves separately from the elves. Keep your force together. You face a lot of strong enemies and will need to rotate all your troops to prevent too much attrition. Take advantage of the fact that you are fighting so many level 2 and 3 units to level any of your troops that still can improve.

One way to play this scenario is to move everyone to the westernmost cavern. It has a good bottleneck to hold the dwarves at and plenty of villages to heal. Once you are dug in, send Rugnur, Thursagan (who is an absolute badass now that he has the Sceptre of Fire) and a few other units south to the glyph. Kill the orc guards and step on the glyph. Once you do that you are instructed to kill all the elves before they escape. Luckily for you, stepping on the glyph also unleashes the Troll Warriors '''behind''' the elves. The elves have no chance. The trolls will quickly slaughter them. You can help if you want, but the end is inevitable. Make sure Thursagan and Rugnur don't fall in lava.

To keep Krawg out of trouble you can move him onto one of the lava squares. There are several which are only accessible/attackable by flying units. There are no flying enemies so Krawg will be safe.

Don't worry about the Troll Warriors. They cannot get out until you step on the glyph. By that time it probably doesn't matter.

'''Alternative Strategy'''

A much more direct approach is to simply ignore the trolls coming from the internal caves. Use a few units to slow them down (guardsmen are very effective) and move your heavy hitters south directly into the glyph chamber. Kill the guards as quickly as possible and take defensive positions around the glyph while watching the elves and trolls fight each other. When you're ready, step on the glyph and unleash the Troll Warriors on the elves. Then it's only a matter of surviving until the elves are slaughtered. You might suffer some losses, but as long as the heroes survive it doesn't matter. If the elves don't get entirely wiped out in a few turns, the cave will end up entirely covered in lava, killing everyone. Either way, you win and proceed to the campaign's Epilogue.

-shadowblack

[[Category:Campaigns]]
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]

LegendofWesmere

2013-09-24T05:09:29Z

Adam12: /* Costly Revenge */ added note about scouts not defecting

General Note: Throughout this campaign, if your elves need to make a stand and you have a choice of options, choose the one that will put most of them in the woods. Not only will this give you the best chance of survival, it will ensure that the AI playing your allies will do useful things. This matters a lot, because many of the scenarios in this campaign involve allies you cannot control whose death results in your defeat.

Strategical Note: This is a long campaign where you play elves. So take a look at the top level units: There are two units capable of flight! One of them is a curing healer +8, the other one is level 4. Both of them can do magic, and both of them can slow their enemies! If you can team up two shydes and two sylphs, you get a magically hard hitting, regenerating, slowing air force that can ZoC-lock an enemy. As if that wasn't enough, late in the campaign you'll lose access to most of your veteran troops, but not your sylphs and shydes. So it really pays to level shamans. However, they are not recruitable during the first four scenarios (since version 1.9.x) --you will still have enough opportunity to level them up, but it requires some effort.

Loyal troops are even more valuable in this campaign than in most others, partially because they get three traits, but mainly because you'll get to keep them when your other troops are unavailable. With that in mind, you should strongly consider leveling one (or both!) of your loyal fighters into a marshal. His leadership skills will prove invaluable when you are stuck with a level 1 army.

== The Uprooting ==
* Objectives: Kill any of the orc leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz or Landar dies or turns run out
* Turns: 16/14/12 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and Anduilas

Like the first scenario in Heir to the Throne, this scenario begins with the hero in a forest with enemies preparing to close in on all sides. You might want to simply run away (and previously you could), but you have to kill one enemy leader. The keep directly to the east might seem tempting, but it will be hard to conquer, since its orcish leader will be pumping out units constantly for the first few turns.

A good alternative is going southwest, as this puts the maximum distance between you and the troops of the other orcish leaders, and only level 1 orcs will come from that corner. It also allows you to use the units of Velon more efficiently; they come under your control after they are first attacked by an orc. The villages will also become yours at that point, so you don't need to worry too much about them (except for healing, of course).

You can only recruit fighters and archers. Use fighters to shield yourself and archers to kill the grunts (warriors). Keep loyals and leaders safe - if only one unit shields them, remember that it can be killed by a single lucky L2 orc. If you manage to level up units choose captain for fighters and marksman for archers.

[Addition by vanatteveldt: At least on medium, you can also storm the eastern fortress. I recruited a fortress full of archers and a couple of fighters and immediately stormed the eastern fortress. If you keep the orcs penned up in the keep and immediately place (and replace) a fighter on any vacant keep square, you can prevent the computer from recruited more than 1 unit per turn or so. I finished on turn 6 with the eastern orc leader having 155 gold left that it couldn't spend.]

== Hostile Mountains ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost or defeat the troll leader
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Olurf dies or turns run out
* Turns: 32/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

The most important thing to do is get the dwarves to fight the trolls. The trolls will go to the east bank without any bait, just take care you don't lure them away or worse anger the dwarves yourself. Even after they fight with the trolls, do not go to the east bank.

Recruit fighters to die, archers to do damage. The trolls will tend to go for the fighters when given the option. If you don't have a captain yet, level up a fighter as soon as possible, and use his leadership on your archers. You will need marksmen to kill trolls on mountains, so keep your archers safe (well, at least on reasonable terrain).

Do not, under any circumstances, cross the river—if you do, Olurf will attack you, and the trolls will cut both you and the dwarves to pieces. You can have units stand in the river if necessary to reach a particular unit, but since your enemies are more powerful than your units avoid doing so if you are likely to be counterattacked. Instead, send out an archer or two (preferably ''quick'' ones) to grab the villages in the far northern reaches of the board while you move your troops onto the wooded island in the middle of the river, directly south of your keep. From here, you can help the dwarves whittle down the trolls while you slowly wend your way southwest toward the troll keep. The scenario will end if you succeed in killing the troll leader. Note: Olurf's death counts as a defeat.

There is a reason the middle island has so much forest. The western bank of the river has a narrow swath of forest surrounded by mountains and hills. This is not ideal terrain for fighting trolls. Trolls move faster than elves on hills and mountains and have comparable defense. A much better idea is to try to occupy the middle island, forcing the trolls to attack from water. Chances are you'll only be able to claim the northern tip of the island at first, so half your army will spill over to the forest on the west bank. The dwarves help by putting units in water and doing other things to distract the trolls and draw fire away from you.

It is preferable to aim to kill the troll leader rather than get to the signpost as the experience is most important.

== Ka'lian Under Attack ==
* Objectives: Survive the initial attack with Galtrid, then defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Galtrid dies or turns run out
* Turns: 5/7/9 initially, then 35/30/25 extra (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

Take careful note of this map; you'll be fighting on it again later.

For the first turns (original turn limit) you play the defenders of the Ka'lian. See all those Orcish Assassins in the water? Make sure they receive as much retaliation as possible when they poison your units (archers). As you can heal only 2 units per turn, make sure they can't poison your fresh recruits as well. So you can as well kill them with some of your poisoned units as long as they have still enough health. Distribute XP carefully, units heal upon level up, rarely is this more useful than in this scenario.

Don't just hit Ctrl-R to recruit; you have a massive keep so put your new units in the right place. Don't let the orcs in good defense terrain and you should be fine. Use Galtrids leadership carefully by moving him multiple times per turn to support different areas of the castle.

When Kalenz arrives - and if you defended the Ka'lian well - the orcs just pile up in the northwestern corner. Control the map, by trapping and killing the village stealing wolf riders, heal your poisoned Ka'lian defenders and let them do some work. Close in carefully - it will be very hard avoiding casualties, but when the time comes, let them be L1 fighters and not your L2. You can level a number of units, but don't wait too long, you will need gold for the next scenario. (250+ carryover)

The behaviour of the orcs will depend directly on your ability to hold out the invasion of your fortress. If you manage to repel somewhat successfully their initial attack, the orcs will assume a defensive stance for the second part of the battle (usually triggered when Kalenz arrives). If, on the other hand, the orcs have a more successful start, they then become more aggresive and the battle becomes much more lively on the second part.

A special feature of this particular scenario --something not very common in a campaign-- is that you will control two armies simultaneously after Kalenz' arrival. You start assuming the role of El'Isomithir, ant later Kalenz joins the party and by then you will switch between your two roles. However, you won't control El'Isomithir's army anymore in the future, so don't grow too attached to it.

== The Elvish Treasury ==
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Cleodil dies or turns run out
* Turns: 35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

There are two ways to play this scenario. The most straightforward solution is to send your army en masse to the keep in the northwest first; that's where Cleodil (an Elvish Shyde) is. Then turn east to take out the other saurian. Recruit plenty of fighters, use leadership to full extent and try to heal by level up.

It is alternatively possible to kill the eastern leader with rangers/avengers, the AI will completely ignore them once they are in the woods again. This allows to play more defensively in the west.

When fighting the saurians, there are three things to remember: 1) Don't send out isolated units, because they'll be swarmed and killed; 2) Try to keep the saurians on bad terrain 3) watch the day/night cycle (it doesn't affect your elves, but the saurians are significantly weaker by day and you can turn that fact to great advantage). Kill the Augurs as soon as possible with your fighter line. The skirmishers have a lot of movement points; make sure that wounded units are safe or meant to be sacrificed. In general, take your time to experiment and figure out what works best on your strategy against saurians, as you'll be seeing many more of them in the future.

Along with Cleodil, one fighter and one archer (2 on ''easy'') will be freed from their prison. All of them become loyal to your cause, so by the end of this scenario you'll have a small loyal army on your hands. Protect them well and plan carefully how you are going to level them up, since they will become the core of your troops from now on until the very end (although you will be occasionally separated from them).

There's a couple of things worth noting regarding Cleodil: one is that she has a special ability labeled ''elates Kalenz'' which works basically like leadership, but only works on Kalenz. What this means is that from now on it's a good idea to keep those two close to each other in the battle field. The other one is that she can recruit shamans and woses. You may try it out in this scenario, in the small keep to the north. This works out nicely if your strategy for this scenario is to concentrate on the northwestern enemy first. With a little effort, you can free Cleodil relatively quickly, and then her recruits can be very helpful for the rest of the battle.

== The Saurian Treasury ==
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Cleodil dies or turns run out
* Turns: 24/20/18 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

With Cleodil on your side now, you may finally recruit shamans, as well as woses.

This scenario is much trickier than the last one because here you have to fight the saurians on terrain that's hostile to your elves (desert and swamp). Try to confront them on favorable terrain and form a defensive line (against skirmishers) each turn. Woses are very effective against saurians, and the ''slows'' attribute of shamans' ranged attacks limits the damage potential and mobility of skirmishers. Kill the southern leader first.

When you've dealt with the southern leader and the treasury (the single saurian sitting on a village and not moving) you can either take an Elvish Scout to the treasury to pick up the gold and return it to the sign post (you will have only have the movement points after taking up the treasure) or just go kill the northern leader. Killing the leader is preferable. You'll get XP and any loss in gold from early finish is dwarfed by the 1800 gold you get for beating the level.

Keep an eye on the turn limit. The enemy leaders are easily lured out with a scout.

== Acquaintance in Need ==
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
* Turns: 35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

This is another leveling opportunity for your shamans, as there is another troll leader to kill. Also you need to make sure that you neither overrecruit nor underrecruit. With too few units, you will take too long to finish your enemies (as always), while too many units won't help you in the fight, and you will need the money!

Start with the green enemy, who's the closest one to you. The dwarves, who are your allies for this scenario, should provide substantial help in doing so. While you finish off the first orc, you should start sending a fair amount of relatively unexperienced archers/shamans west to take on the troll. Then move north over the mountains in a broad line to take out the orcs. A broad front line will help you to quickly overrun the orcs and allow you to finish in good time. Of course, you need sufficient numbers to do this without overstretching yourself.

The dwarves will get a lot of kills/occupy the enemy quite a bit. Their high mountain defense and mobility ensure this. You may need to resign yourself to softening the orcs up and letting the dwarves get the kills.

On this scenario you'll be able to ask Olurf to move to a specific location inside the map (using right-click), which may be useful in case you want his help in some particularly tight spot. This is one of the ways in which you can control the behaviour of your allies (you'll see another in the next scenario). Notice, however, that this command only applies to Olurf himself, and his troops will continue to move freely as they please, often taking experience away from you.

By the end of the scenario, you will end up "hiring" Olurf --paying him 400 gold-- but if you've been careful with your finances, you probably won't miss that amount.

== Elves' Last Stand ==
* Objectives: Defeat all of the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Galtrid dies or turns run out
* Turns: 35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

[NOTE: This scenario gives you the option of choosing to give orders to the AI that controls your allies. Because of bug issues, I ended up playing the scenario through without using this option. The advice that follows is for playing the scenario with the AI making automatic choices.--cathyr19355]

This is the same map as in Kal'ian Under Attack, but with many more enemies.

Avoid focusing too much on the troll keep for the first few turns. If you do this, Galdrid will probably be left without much assistance inside Ka'lian, and by turn 5-6 it will probably be too late. Instead, focus on moving your army to Ka'lian as quickly as possible and continue the battle from there. Fortunately, the terrain will help you repel the trolls and orcs coming from the north and west while you move the bulk of your army.

If you're careful, you can use the heavy fighting to level units. As you kill off the aforementioned trolls and orcs, move the main body of your army south through the Kal'ian to Grubr's keep, then west and north again to kill the remaining enemies. Meanwhile, recruit/recall a bunch of riders and other fast-moving units, send them directly south of your keep to grab the villages on the eastern side of the board; if they make it far enough south, you can aim them at Grubr's keep to take some of the pressure off the Kal'ian. Even though you have a lot of gold and can recruit a lot of units, your enemies are numerous, and the reinforcements won't show up until the third day, so don't get sloppy about formation and protecting the wounded.

Olurf will show up on turn 12 and you'll have to choose whether to place him on the northeast, or the northwest corner. Since dwarves are quite comfortable on mountains, a good choice is the northeast corner, from which you can guide him and his troops to finish off the troll leader.

If you want to save Eradion (your elf ally on the southwest), order him to move inside Ka'lian from the first turn. Otherwise, he will probably end up being caught in the fire and experiencing a not very heroic death.

Note for directing the AI:
I tried to get both my allies to swarm the sourthern orc, they should be able to defeat him, but unfortunately the AI does not really listen to this kind of order (bug?), so once I had the trolls under control I send a select few units south through Kal'ian to help mop up the remaining orcs there. This should leave you enough time to concentrate on the nothern battle.

== Council of Hard Choices ==

Story only.

== Bounty Hunters ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz across the river
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
* Turns: 32/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

The only thing you gain from defeating the saurians is experience. Since you just left a lot of your troops at the Ka'lian, experience may be worth your effort. Nonetheless, if you are having trouble beating this level just run north as fast as you can. You should be able to cross the river with little trouble. You probably don't even need to recruit.

If you want to claim some experience, you can form a small army --gold will be the main limitation, since the considerable treasure you had was left on Ka'lian in the previous scenario-- and then either split it into two fronts, or take it all to one of the saurian keeps first if you don't feel comfortable splitting such a small army. If you do split it, send a dwarf-heavy squad to the left (closer mountains) and an elf-heavy one to the right (more forest).

The enemy recruits some relatively low HP level 2s and 3s. You can level units quickly after killing a couple of Saurian Oracles. Of course those Oracles have strong magical attacks (especially at night) negating your high defense. Luckily for you the battles start during the day.

Focus on killing the Oracles and Augurs first. They are easy to kill and do a lot of damage. Instead of throwing 3 or 4 units at a level 3 Flanker, just slow it and rack up kills. Try and kill as many units as you can before nightfall, when the attacks become much more ferocious.

The battles will be on high defense terrain, so they will go slowly. If you recruit more than one keepful Kalenz will have a much tougher time crossing the river.

However, if you already have good units that don't need a lot of extra experience, it might be better to aim for an early finish, in order to amass a good gold reserve again. Gold will become very important by the time you reach the ''Human Alliance'' scenario.

Once you reach the river, a few sea creatures will show up (water serpents and cuttle fish), but they are usually not much of a challenge. Make use of the small islands to get Kalenz across as quickly as possible. You may also try distracting the monsters with elvish scouts.

== Cliffs of Thoria ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost or defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
* Turns: 32/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

There are three tricky elements about this one.

First, you have to climb to your destination (the signpost at the top northeast corner of the map) over high mountains, so the going will be very slow for your elves; watch the turn clock carefully.

Second, the "fog of war" applies so you won't know much about your enemies until you actually bump into them.

Third, among your enemies you will find level 4 Yetis (which pack quite a punch), and Gryphons (which move very quickly through any terrain). Keep your shamans ready to slow Yetis before you attack them with other units.

You may try splitting your forces, sending one group west. The other group, with Kalenz, goes directly north, deals with the nearest enemy, and continues to the signpost. This group should be large enough that you can peel off 4-6 units once you get most of the way north to take out the enemy in the far northwestern keep. Note: dwarves do well in the mountains, but don't recruit a lot of ulfserkers, not even the second-level ones—they tend to take out the unit they attack but then are very vulnerable to attacks by other units.

Another strategy could be sending your full army northwest through the forest, using a quick unit to scout the way until you encounter the Yetis (there are 3 in total), and try to dispatch them quickly, before the trolls catch up with you from the east. Then send a few units to deal with the Gryphon leader on the northwest, while your main force goes east to fight the trolls, and Kalenz goes northeast to reach the sign post. If you want to gain as much XP as possible, move Kalenz ''near'' the signpost while you fight the remaining enemies. You can win the scenario by defeating the leaders, but if things get too hairy, you can always finish by moving Kalenz to its destination.

== Battle of the Book ==
* Objectives: Defeat Aquagar the drake wizard
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
* Turns: 30/34/38 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

The drakes, commanded by Aquagar (the foe you have to defeat) are at the northwest corner, while a keep of trolls is located at the northeast. Crelanu, the wise mage you came here for, is by the lake. You can send a quick unit (e.g. Cleodil) towards that keep in the middle of the map to trigger the dialogue with Crelanu.

You may try splitting your forces, sending half of your troops east along the road first to Crelanu's keep to save him and kill the troll leader (whose keep is close by). Take the remaining troops west to kill the drake leader.

However, it will take some time for the trolls to reach Crelanu, so you may try focusing all your power towards Aquagar to finish him as quickly as possible, and then Crelanu won't need any assistance. If you go for killing Aquagar quickly, you might manage with just a few units, so you can save some gold by not over-recruiting.

Be careful about using archers, since some of the drakes breathe fire and do more damage that way than your units can with their arrows. A good mix of impact and ranged fighters is essential.

'''For 1.9.x'''
In this scenario, you only have to kill Aquagar. So you just focus attacking the drakes. Send some Steelclads, Pathfinders to aid Crelanu. Marksmen, Rangers, Druids, Thunderguards, Stalwarts are extremely useful here. I killed Aquagar by turn 5. ~~Knyghtmare.

== Revelations ==

Story only.

== News from the Front ==

Story only.

== Human Alliance ==
* Objectives: Survive until the end of turns
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf or Aldar (the human leader) dies or turns run out
* Turns: 18/20/22 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

This scenario is the unofficial final, the following scenarios are pretty much a sequel, and easier too.

The enemy is in three places: the northwest, the northeast (trolls) and the southwest. The northeast trolls will not receive reinforcements, so you should concentrate on eliminating their army first.

The most challenging aspect of this scenario is that your army has to do three things practically simultaneously: contain the northwest orcs (this is not that hard due to favorable terrain), aid your human allies to the south, and eliminate the trolls.

The trolls should be pretty easy to kill. Their leader doesn't have much money, so there will not be many trolls to face. Slowing with some shaman and using the forest (and mountain tiles for placing your dwarves) to your benefit leads to a quick victory. Afterwards, send the units to reinforce your other two fronts.

Your allies can hold their own against the first wave of southern attackers but after that they'll be toast. A much better course of action is to team up with them and crush the first wave. When the reinforcements come you should be in a good position to defeat the orcs (especially with your victorious anti-troll army coming to help).

The northwest orcs are numerous but should be kept in check by strong units in the bottlenecks. You'll need some tanks (Champions/Marshals or Steelclads) and healers. When the orc reinforcements arrive you may get swarmed. By this time you should have some help coming from your anti-troll army.

The first wave of reinforcements for the orcs will arrive by the end of turn 5. The second wave will come at turn 12. By the end of the battle, the number of orcs will be overwhelming, and the action will take quite some time between turns. By the second half of the battle your complete focus should probably be on protecting your ally general, who by then will be out of money, occasionally recruiting one or two fodder units, and will remain immovable on his castle keep.

On turn 9, some of the elves you had left on Ka'lian will make a come back (including your loyals!). However, they will show up a little to the west of the keep where you start this scenario. It is a strange location for them to show up, and by that point of the battle it will probably be surrounded by enemies, so keeping these reinforcements alive may be very challenging if you don't have at least some of your forces making a stand near that location. If you can save just some of them, aim for the loyal units, and sacrifice the others.

You should spend all your gold upfront --there is no much point in saving it for later. You may want to recruit a scout or two at the beginning, if you think the investment will be profitable. They can capture a village almost every turn. Don't bother leaving villages for your ally. The money is better in your hands.

== The Treaty ==

Story only.

== The Chief Must Die ==
* Objectives: Kill the orc chief then return to the signpost
* Lose if: Kalenz or Landar dies or turns run out
* Turns: 32/32/32 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz and Landar

You get no keep, and no chance to recruit, in this one. The only units you have are Kalenz and Landar, and their only task is to assassinate the Orc Sovereign (in the middle) and then return to the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Your units will have special attributes (invisible, 80% dodge) for this scenario only that will make this fairly easy, particularly if you have managed to get Landar to level 3.

When Kalenz takes the potion he changes into an Elvish Lord (as you might remember him if you have played [[HeirToTheThrone|HttT]]). He will now possess an arcane-magical attack, which proves very useful against many enemies. You should easily be able to get him to level up during this scenario.

You should have plenty of turns. The only units that will attack you are the Wolf Rider line. They don't pose much threat thanks to Landar's bow and your 80% dodge. Go to the orc leader, kill him and return to the signpost. There is no point in grabbing villages as you get no income from them. There is also no point in finishing early so go ahead and level Kalenz.

== Breaking the Siege ==
* Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf or Uradredia (the elf leader) dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/36/32 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

Stick to recruiting units with lots of mobility, since the map is large and mostly snow-covered, hampering most of your unit types (don't even bother to recruit dwarves—they won't get to the scene of the action in time to strike any blows). Sylphs and Shydes are best, of course.

It is essential that you reach your ally quickly. Otherwise he might be dead before you even see him. Despite the fact that fog of war is turned on for this scenario, it's pretty simple to figure out from the geography which keep belongs to your ally (the one in the middle of the forest). You will want to finish this level quickly or/and to grab as soon as possible all the villages to have lots of gold for the next scenario (on medium you'll probably want at least 500 gold). Send some fast units north to keep your ally alive and send the rest straight west. The western units can sweep up after taking out the southern orc boss. A few of Direwolf Riders come as reinforcements when you get to close to the southern orc, so be careful. Alternatively just send everyone north and fan out from there.

With good units this level shouldn't be tough to beat. Just make sure you beat it in good standing for the next scenario. At this point, this campaign becomes a very good example of why keeping your loyal units alive is very much worth it.

== Hour of Glory ==

Story only.

== Costly Revenge ==
* Objectives: Defeat all enemy units and destroy all enemy villages
* Lose if: Kalenz, Landar dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/35/30 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units
* Other

This is the same map as The Saurian Treasury, but with most of the terrain snow-covered. Since you're fighting the saurians again, most of the advice from that scenario still applies. Mobility is not a great issue, even though one of the enemy keeps is near the top northeastern corner of the map, because by the time you can dispose of your southern enemy he will have already sent most of his troops south after you. Numbers are an issue, however. So, whatever you do, do not underrecruit! (You don't need more than minimal gold in the next recruiting scenario.)

The best place to make a stand is probably near the patch of forest in the middle (high casualty approach) or the forest with the big ice plain in front of it (low casualty approach).

High casualty approach:

You have to put units in the swamp to keep the saurians out of there. The only poor-defense terrain for the saurians is the ice, so keep them on it. The Oracles/Soothsayers will use their ranged attack on your melee units and the Skirmishers/Flankers will use their melee attack on your archers. You will take heavy losses but this is actually good (more on that in a second).

I like to send Kalenz and a couple of fast units (Scouts/Riders) along the northern forest and then have them cut across the top of the map. This accomplishes three things: one, you torch some out of the way villages; two, you can distract the northern saurians long enough to keep your main force (in the middle of the map) in control; three, you can move them over to kill the northern leader at the end.

There is a weird twist to this level. After this the elvish civil war breaks out. All your units except loyal ones and scouts defect and serve Landar. So, see that Elvish Champion racking up the kills? Next time he's in battle he will be killing ''your'' units. After the tide of the battle has turned try and get the non-loyal high level units killed (attack those last two Oracles with ranged attack, etc).

If you have enough gold your main worries will be getting to the villages in time (scouts come in handy), getting to the northern leader in time and leaving as few good units for the civil war as possible.

Low casualty approach:

1.10.1 (hard): It is not necessary to get your units killed consciously and this scenario is possible with fairly low gold (220 gold for me) by recruiting mainly veterans and exploiting the horrible saurian movement / defence on ice (low casualty approach). As the turn limit isn't very long, it is useful to send some rangers/avengers behind the saurian lines to start burning villages, as soon as they hide in a forest they are invisible to the AI. Constantly check the turn clock, and be as aggresive as possible during the day.

== Council Ruling ==

Story only.

== Elvish Assassins ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost
* Lose if: Kalenz or Cleodil dies or turns run out
* Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and Anduilas

There's no need to recruit - Kalenz can make it to the signpost with just the units you're given.

You might feel tempted to take this scenario as an opportunity to level up some new recruits from scratch, but this may not be a good idea. After a few turns, one of your elf allies (chosen at random) will turn against you, making the battle unpredictable and risky, for not a lot of gain.

There's just a couple of extra scenarios left in this campaign, and if you feel like leveling up units for the final battle, it's better to do it in the next scenario, where you can recall Cleodil's troops again.

== Northern Battle ==
* Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders or survive for six days
* Lose if: Kalenz, Cleodil or Uradredia dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/36/32 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and Anduilas

This is the same map as Breaking the Siege, but since it's not winter, most of the board is grassland and woods, and much easier for your elves to fight on.

Landar, now one of your enemies, will be in the far southwest, while another enemy elf has a keep a little to the north from yours. Approximately two thirds of your non-loyal veterans, chosen at random, will go with Landar, while the remaining third will go with Uradredia.

If you have been building a formidable "air force" (shaman line) you can beat this level very easily. Moreover, the objective description is not very faithful, since you don't really have to kill all enemy leaders. It suffices to move any of your units adjacent to Landar. This makes this scenario quite easy to beat. If you still have Huraldur (your loyal quick elvish rider) on your side and you have leveled him up, you can take him straight to Landar's keep, and --thanks to the vulnerable design of Landar's keep-- place him next to Landar by turn 3, finishing the scenario with a huge gold reward. Alternatively, you may try a similar strategy with a group of new scout recruits or other quick units.

However, you can take the opportunity to level up a few recruits. Particularly, now could be a good time to level up any shamans/woses from Cleodil's old recall list to their maximum. Keep in mind that you need to put Cleodil in the ''Encampment Keep'' tile so you can recall those units.

Because of Landar's betrayal and the loss of most of your veterans, you will be working mostly with first level units. Consequently, don't try to take on either enemy on the naked grasslands where their keeps lie; recruit as much as you can, then head for your ally's keep in the north central region of the board, taking as many villages during the process as possible. If you need to, make a stand in and about your ally's keep, though depending upon how well you delay Crintil's army you may be able to pick off your enemy a few at a time in the forest long enough to survive until the end of the scenario.

Playing this scenario patiently has a nice side-effect: by killing Landar's strong veterans here, they won't be available to him in the final battle. As a consequence, if you completely wipe up his army now, he'll be stuck with just fresh level-1 and level-2 elves to recruit by then (unless you're playing on ''hard'' difficulty). Also, all of Uradredia's units will become yours, so if you have the chance to save some of his veterans in this scenario, it's worth doing it.

[On version 1.8.2, all my levelled shaman-line had also disappeared - some for my ally, other for Landar. I could only recruit some shaman about to level. And some of my warriors had gone to my ally, not to Landar. With only first level units, killing the south-east level at turn 2 or 3 is not possible... but you can still buy some second-level warriors who will do the job. After that, most of Landar's units will go toward your ally's keep, which makes you able to reach Landar and end the scenario. Careful, he will be able to deal a final blow to the unit who assaulted him ! ]

If you have some experienced woses (highly resistant against pierce damage!), you can as well crush all the traitors frontally - as long as you engage them outside the forest - for an early finish and large bonus.

== End of War ==
* Objectives: Defeat Landar
* Lose if: Kalenz or Cleodil dies or turns run out
* Turns: 24/21/18 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

A relatively short and simple battle, considering this is the final scenario. Recall/recruit all worthy veterans, and don't worry about gold or grabbing villages. If you've made it this far, surely you have the necessary strategic/tactical skills necessary to deal with Landar's army. Now is the time to try risky ideas; this is the last stop for you and your army, so give them the chance to act heroically on the battle field.

A straightforward strategy involves recalling any remaining veteran troops, then recruiting an army of level 1 elves. Form up your line of battle at the edge of the forest to maximize the difference in defense (70% vs. 40%, while trying to hold the shore is only 40% vs. 20%). The forest defense bonus also means that your level 1 troops stand a good chace of surviving at least one round of two level 2 attacks (which they are unlikely to survive on open ground). If any enemy elves make it into the forest the best approach is to use magic attacks to smoke them out (a slyph works wonders). Once Landar's army has been dealt with, sweep your troops down to the enemy keep to deliver the coup de grace.

[version 1.8.2 : on medium, you can just buy loads of level 1 warriors, and keep - most of the time - in the woods. Landar start with about the same money as you do, but doing this, you just suffocate him under numbers.]

Again experienced woses dominate your enemies outside of forests.

== Epilogue ==

Story only.

[[Category: Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]