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Northern Rebirth

2010-09-19T09:34:50Z

Adeptus: /* Old Friend */

===Breaking the Chains===
* Objectives: Defeat the orc leaders
* Lose if: Tallin dies or turns run out
* Turns: 51/41/31/26 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin and Zlex, a loyal peasant

All you can recruit in this scenario are level 0 Peasants and Woodsmen, so it calls for unusual tactics. Initially you can't overpower the orcs by brute force. Fortunately though, the orcs are fighting amongst themselves, so guerrilla tactics will work. Keep your head down, and let the orcs weaken each other while you slip around the edges and grab as many villages as you can - even if you have to sacrifice a few units. Once the orcs are done fighting (one side will be mostly out of units), march your Woodsmen in a line and finish them off.

The next scenario can be ''expensive'', so try to finish as early as you can. Don't worry too much about leveling troops (except for Tallin and Zlex), because you'll get better troops next scenario anyway. When you do level units, keep in mind that you'll mostly be fighting skeletons for the next four scenarios; Bowmen will be okay late-game but not so good in the near future.

Also, beware of the tunnel entrance to the northeast. When you move there you will unleash a squad of trolls. Sometimes they attack the orcs (good for you) but other times they attack you. Since they are resistant to your pierce attacks, they can give you a bit of trouble should the latter happen.

===Infested Caves===
* Objectives: Find the dwarves and survive; or, defeat all the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Tallin or Hamel dies or turns run out
* Turns: 60/55/50/45 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin and a supporter
* Other: find Camerin the Arch Mage in the northernmost village

There are two ways to finish this level: just reach the dwarves and survive till the end (with no bonus, but you keep the usual fraction of the gold you've saved during the scenario), or defeat all the enemies for a large early finish bonus (since there are tons of villages). Defeating the enemies is tough, but you should try it anyway because you really need the cash.

Each of the three level 1 recruits at your disposal has its own advantages:
*Thugs, with their powerful impact attack, are the best at dishing out punishment. However, being melee-only means they get beat up in the process, not to mention shot to pieces by the Skeleton Archers.
*Footpads' dodge rating, speed, and ranged attack means they're good at getting somewhere, holding the line while doing some decent damage (especially against Skeletons), and racing back to a village when they get beat up. Unfortunately, their damage output isn't all ''that'' good, so while they won't really get pushed back, they won't be pushing forward very well either.
*Poachers are the best ranged attackers against trolls, even despite their resistances. They're virtually useless against skeletons though.

Whatever units you choose to use, there's two basic ways to go about the fight. First, you can swarm everywhere at once, flooding the main chamber with wave after wave of bodies. You can get quite a bit of XP this way, but be prepared to take massive losses in the process. Second, you can hang back in your entrance tunnel and let the skeletons and brown trolls beat each other up. This drastically reduces casualties, but also drastically cuts down on XP and can make it a bit harder when you finally do decide to move into the main chamber. The brown trolls are a tough matchup because of the huge amount of villages they have and their level two recruits. It is probably best to eliminate their leader as soon as possible. Other than that, try and let the undead and the trolls fight each other as much as possible. If you are struggling in the main chamber, let the white undead run rampant. If you keep all the skeletons away from the trolls, then they can't damage each other.

Either way, pack units into the tunnels going north and south. Keep in mind the various units' advantages: Thugs can push forward but will take a lot of losses, Footpads will stay alive but not do much else, and Poachers will shoot up the trolls but be useless later.

When moving to the northern trolls (blue) make sure to flag the village that is in the grassy area. By doing this you get Camerin, an Arch Mage. He is quite useful.

Once the blue and green trolls are dead, you'll find secret passages leading into the rooms with the skeletons. Rush them hard; expect to take casualties fighting the Death Knights. Using the secret passages is better than taking the direct route, because getting stuck fighting skeletons in those bottlenecks is no fun.

There's one troll left, recruiting annoying high-level units in the far east, but it should be straightforward to surround them in the open main room.

There are two keep hexes in the main room. They are close enough together that you can use both to recruit in a single turn. With the massive amount of initial gold and all the villages available in the level, take advantage of being able to recruit up to 7 units per turn.

---

If you give up on clearing the caves, you can reach the dwarves by going east through the main room, then south past an undead boss. Grab as many villages until you can and sit there pressing "Next Turn", then finish the scenario on the last turn. If you do this, don't bother fetching the Arch Mage, because he'll join you at the end of the scenario anyway.

[ineedanewstrategy]I found that if I had a footpad on one of the villages near the central keep by about turn 26 his high line of sight was able to spot the dwarves, triggering a conversation and more aggressive action from them. I was then able to finish off in another 5-6 turns with their help, and a nice bonus ;)

===To The Mines===
* Objectives: Go to the mines (with Tallin) or defeat the wolves
* Lose if: Tallin or Hamel dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/36/30/24 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Hamel, Camerin and a supporter

This is designed to be more of a breather scenario, letting you get a bit of fresh air and level a few units before you plunge back into the caves. However, stay on your guard because if you get sloppy, you could experience a lot of grief.

The basic strategy is to recruit lots of dwarves and sweep north in a line. You'll lose a few but level up more, which will be your most reliable heavy infantry in later scenarios. Beware Wolf Riders nipping around your flanks and don't leave any units isolated. Recalling Poachers/Trappers will make quicker work of the Wolf Riders but the experience may be appreciated more if it is doled out to dwarves.

Alternatively, recruit a keep full of level 0 "targets" and make a point of leaving one or two of them isolated (but with support troops nearby). The AI loves to attack these "soft" targets, leaving his units vulnerable to your full counterattack. With a bit of luck, you can even lure out the enemy leader for an easy (and early) finish.

===Clearing The Mines===
* Objectives: Clear the mines
* Lose if: Tallin or Hamel dies or turns run out
* Turns: 85/75/65/55 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Hamel, Camerin, a supporter and some dwarves
* Other: LOTS of ghouls show up on turn 20

This is a large scenario, and a tough one, but it's very important to do well here. There are two key secrets which will dictate your strategy.

The first secret: this is the last scenario on which you can recruit dwarfs. Dwarfs are probably the best units in your army, *especially* against skeletons; you want to recruit lots of them now, so that you can recall them later and level them into Dwarven Lords. Recruit, recruit, recruit, until you run out of gold. You should have a continuous stream of of dwarfs going both north and east.

I didn't recruit any of the Dwarvish Thunderers -- they're not much good against skeletons, and I don't like the element of randomness where half the time they deal no damage. You might feel differently.

When fighting the guard skeletons, try to lure them off their platforms before attacking. They'll cheerfully leave their posts to attack your low-level units, especially if they think there's a chance to kill something.

The second secret: see all that water on the level? On turn 21, most of that water turns into swamp, and every swamp hex will have a Ghoul on it. You need to have most of the Death Knights dead before this happens, so don't dawdle.

There are two ways to deal with the Ghouls. The first option is to kill the Lich before turn 22. This is tricky, but very doable. The Lich is very frisky about leaving his keep to attack you; lure him away and hit him with whatever Dwarven Lords you have.

The second option is to farm the Ghouls for experience. You've got lots and lots of dwarves, right? Why not have fun with them? Surround the water with dwarfs on all sides, and wait for turn 21. You'll lose a few dwarfs, but you'll gain a lot of experience, too. Be careful of the Lich, who will attack when you get close. You don't want to kill him until most of the Ghouls are dead, so it's best to just put up with him (and try not to move any high-level units where he can get at them).

===The Pursuit===
* Objectives: Destroy Malifor
* Lose if: Tallin dies or turns run out
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, a supporter and some dwarves
* Other
** Get the Rod of Justice in the northern chamber
** Raid the treasury

This level opens with an 8-way junction of passages (one of which is where you enter). Don't get involved in fights in all 7 passages at once; you can only use Camerin in one place at a time, and initially you have a serious problem with healing (namely, you don't have any means to heal units, so they just have to go and stand in the entrance passage and regain 2hp per turn).

By turn 2 you should have Tallin on the camp, recruiting thugs and recalling dwarfs. Send your best units down the southwest passage ASAP. There's a death knight down there who can recruit second-level skeletons; you have to hit him fast and hard. He won't start recruiting until you stand where he can see you, so pack the passage with units before you charge into the room. This will probably take several tries to get right.

Once the death knight goes down, your dwarf lords can clean out the next few revenants, after which the world is a much nicer place. The druid you get is pretty awesome, but the real prize here is the two invincible white mages. Whenever one white mage gets killed, the other one resurrects it, with apparently no penalty! (Resurrection seems to drain their experience, but if a white mage reaches level 3, it will stay level 3 forever.)

Your first order of business is to send the female white mage (with the "quick" attribute) down the southeast tunnel, the one with the "water monsters" warning. Send her an escort -- three or four units, any type as long as they all have 6+ movement. She'll eventually win the scenario for you.

While you've been doing all this, the death knights down the east and west tunnels have been sending skeletons at you. The bad news is it's extremely difficult to kill these guys, because the path is full of bottlenecks, and they can make a new skeleton every turn. The good news is there's not really any need to kill these guys -- put some dwarfs or thugs in the bottleneck and kill the skeletons as they come out. Fairly quickly you'll need to heal your defenders, which is why it was so important to get those healers rescued quick.

Now that you've got your base under control, it's time to focus on profit. Remember that long tunnel behind Krash? Send a footpad down that tunnel; he'll eventually find three loyal dwarfs. (He'll also find a backdoor into the Treasury, but it's probably not worth your time to send an army down that way to take advantage of it.) In the meantime, grab some healthy units and hit the Treasury from the front. When you get close, you'll trigger two Death Knights to summon units at you. Retreat out of the tunnel and kill them as they chase you into your main room, then head back in once they run out of gold.

You don't ever want to attack the guards on their platforms; instead, put an expendable unit (newly recruited Thug or Footpad) where they can reach it, and they'll leave their platform every time. Repeat until done. Your goal in the Treasury is the chest in the far north, which has 10K gold. Try not to spend too much of it. The rest of the chests have less gold, but still worth getting.

Finish the Treasury? Both the north and northeast tunnels eventually lead to the final boss, but more importantly, there's other benefits to going up the two tunnels: loads of XP and the almighty Rod of Justice.

The north tunnel leads to the Rod of Justice. The tunnel is almost entirely unguarded at first, and after a while opens into a large, open chamber. Take Tallin and the druid with a hardened force with you, because going into the chamber has two effects: your retreat is cut off by a cave-in, and you're attacked by a mass of ''very'' dangerous level 3 spiders. This is where the druid comes in: spiders have poison, and the druid can cure. Luckily, there's a chokepoint that you can fall back to and wear down the spiders' numbers before having to assault the chamber in force. The reward for killing the spiders? The Rod of Justice. When you've secured the chamber, send Tallin to go grab it. It gives him stat boosts and an incredibly powerful ranged attack.

The northeast tunnel doesn't have any big rewards like the Rod of Justice, but there are two Death Knights and loads of skeletons, making it good for experience. It's also nice and narrow, so while the going is slow, you don't have to worry about being overwhelmed.

As you've been doing all this, your white mage has been running down that long southeast tunnel. At one point her escort killed some tentacles. (And she sent a footpad down a south tunnel, where he found a friendly Wraith. Handy!) Later she passed a pool which contained a sea monster. (If you don't go in the room, it won't attack.) Eventually she reached a keep guarded by three nagas. When you're ready to take out the boss, grab your other white mage (the male one, with movement 5) and send him off to get killed somewhere. He'll teleport next to the female mage. It no longer matters if your white mages die, because they'll just respawn in the same place. Kill the nagas and open the secret door; the lich has a bunch of guards, but your white mages are invincible, and eventually (probably around turn 55-60) they'll finish the scenario for you.

[Andrew] The East tunnel has 3 holy water bottles through a hidden passage on the south side of the room.

===Old Friend===
* Objectives: Defeat Rakshas (almost impossible) or just survive 18 turns
* Lose if: Tallin dies or turns run out
* Turns: 18/18/18/18 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia and a supporter

This is meant to be an easy mission if your objective is to simply survive and hoard gold. You don't have to defeat the Orcs to win this one, so you can just lurk just inside the two-hex-wide aperture of the cave only two orcs at a time will be able to get at you; it's not hard to fend them off until time runs out. Spend as little gold as possible and level up some troops.

If you are using this approach, it's worth recalling one dwarvish steelclad and run him round to the east-most village in the northern mountains - this one has impassable mountains on 2 adjacent tiles, so it can be attacked from only one tile, so a steelclad can easily hold out here & gain some XP doing so.

Alternatively, you can go ahead and sally. It is supposed to be impossible to actually defeat them entirely, but if you stick to defensive terrain and keep recycling fresh units to the front, you should soon pile up stacks of orcish corpses as well as experience, which always comes in handy. It's possible to beat the nearer two orcs with relative ease on the easiest difficulty. But not advisable. When you get too close to either of them, Rakshas triggers the appearance of Goblin Knights on all the mountain tiles in the centre of the map. This level is not possible to win by beating the leaders in the time available. But it's well worth sallying forth anyway, because you get a chance to level a lot of troops relatively easily.

[Adeptus] Block the corridor with 2 units at 1XP to increase level. The I.A. won't attack unless it has nonzero probability to kill the unit with one single attack. Skip turn 18 times (and cry for all that XP you did not gain).

===Settling Disputes===
* Objectives: Capture the liches and save Stalrag
* Lose if: Tallin or Stalrag dies or turns run out
* Turns: 30/25/20/15 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia and a supporter

Your two White Mages and Camerin will be teleported into the middle of a battle between some ogres, trolls and a Lich and some dwarves. Your first job is to kill the Lich and not let the dwarf leader die. This is straightforward but Stalrag, the dwarvish leader, is quite cavalier with his life. You need to kill the Lich and then help the Ulfserkers to the south with the ogre and troll. Otherwise Stalrag will run to the village and likely be killed by the troll.

You have 100 gold, so recruit 5 good units. Your Poachers/Trappers can be used since you'll be fighting trolls and ogres with a few mages and gryphons thrown in. Assault in two places: down the east side of the map with your three mages (and any leftover dwarves) and across the river ford in the middle. Your White Mages are still immortal so you can be quite aggressive. For the river ford, you'll get across at night so be defensive (the level 2 Ogres are hard hitters) until day. (Of course, using the Rod of Justice on melee-only opponents is something that you should do all the time...) The initial wave will probably be blunted by then, too. Then sweep down and subdue the Lich.

===Elvish Princess===
* Objectives: Survive until the end of turns or rescue the princess
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian or Ro'Sothian dies
* Turns: 24/21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag and a supporter

In this one it's best to go straight at Bitterhold with a small group of hardened veterans -- you need to be in there fast (Camerin and the Rod of Justice will be particularly helpful here). Your objective, getting a unit onto the cage at the center of the castle, may be best accomplished with a flyer (a Gryphon recruited specifically for this purpose can be useful) once you've chewed a few holes in the inner ring of defenders.

The Spectre, Krash and one other fast unit can usually pin down the Blue Orc leader to the East and kill him early. This is useful as it prevents him harrying your flank, and with a little support from your main force, gives you a second attack point, which helps clear the defenders quickly.

===Introductions===
* Objectives: Move Tallin to the northern signpost
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian or Ro'Sothian dies or turns run out
* Turns: 24/21/18/15 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag, Eryssa and a supporter

This is a small level with not that many enemies. Nothing complicated. Standard dungeon-crawling tactics should work fine in this one -- minimize your exposed front, and cycle wounded units back to the healers before they get killed. The destination signpost is in the northwest corner. Try and level any non-max-level units you still have. Send your wraith up the right-hand passage and he can attack/distract some of the trolls. There is nothing interesting in any of the side passages.

===Stolen Gold===
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders or hold out until time runs out
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian or Ro'Sothian dies
* Turns: 36/36/36/36 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag, Eryssa and a supporter

You'll have two problems in this scenario. One is lots and lots and lots of trolls. The other is that Krash is going to fly off and recruit level-one drakes to help you, but if they get swarmed by all the level-two trolls they're not going to live long. Krash's camp will materialize in the mountains near the map-edge west of your camp; the house at edge of board will be one hex NW of his tent square. Don't do anything in the beginning with Krash except grab villages. He leaves after turn 1.

The first thing to do is kill the northwest troll. Move the Sorceress, the Ancient Lich and the Spectre towards the Blue troll on your first turn. Recall a castle of level 3s or high XP level 2s, mostly Dwarf Lords and Dragonguards, though the occasional Fugitive or Hunstman can be useful. Then move Tallin (who should be Level 4 by this stage) towards the blue leader as well. The Blue leader will take the village to the SE of his camp on turn 1. With Tallin's high movement and the power of the Lich, it's possible to ZoC him on turn 2 and kill him (it helps to use the Sorceress, she needs the XP). Then, mopping up the blue trolls is not much of a problem with the units available - apart from the sorceress, they can usually kill between one and 2 trolls per turn. Recruit a couple more troops on the Blue base if you've still got the money and attend to the rest.

I like to send the two White Mages on their own to the south. Since they are immortal they can stall the two southern trolls for (hopefully) enough time for you to kill the northeast troll. The drawback is that you go from 3 healers to just 1. If you do this, make sure to keep them in the middle of the map. Sometimes they regenerate off to the side. If this happens the trolls will just bypass them and attack your main force before you are ready.

Using your first turn recalls, establish a defensive line on the line of hills in the middle of the map at the top, putting the Shyde in the forest. Wait out the Green trolls' charge, then counterattack, bringing the Spectre and possibly the Sorceress round to help. The green troll should be on the way out around the time Krash arrives. One of the White Mages provides healing up here (if you aren't sending them on a kamikaze mission to the south).

The Lich and 2 or 3 other dwarves (healthy/resilient if possible) should hold the edge of the hills on the west side of the map, keeping them clear for Krash's arrival. They shouldn't kill any Whelps that oppose them, but take out Rocklobbers and Grunts for as little return damage as possible. Use ranged attacks in preference to melee, apart from if the Lich needs some health back. Tallin should take and hold the village in the middle when he's finished with the Blue trolls, and provide leadership. The second White Mage stays near the base, and will resurrect there when killed, providing a wonderful distraction to up to 8 trolls per turn. Krash's arrival should happen around the time that the troops from the Green troll attack are freed up - sweep all of the remaining trolls southwards. Krash and company should kill the Black leader, and the Elves and Spectre will take care of Purple around the time the Brown Elf team arrives. Good for a huge gold bonus, but requires a very aggressive start and risks losing a couple of high level units.

'''Alternate strategy:''' Recall nine or ten veterans and linger up around where his camp
will appear. Hold off the troll swarm until the drakes show up, then bust out of the encirclement and clean up.

The Spectre can be extremely effective against the trolls; place him in the village on the northern tip of the eastern island, and he should be able to safely defend against one to three trolls each turn. The Elvish Shyde and Sorceress, as well as the two liches, can be put to
better use if you move them into the forest on the eastern island in the beginning of the scenario. Stay within the forest and lure in trolls one or two at a time to level up the Sorceress and create a distraction. Once the troll leaders in the NE and SE have finished recruiting and their forces have moved over to attack in the west, the liches and the shyde can jump in and kill the leaders, and seize as many villages as possible.

After Krash's camp is set up, you will be controlling both Tallin's and Krash's troops. Krash's team will take its turn after all the trolls, and before Tallin. The trolls will probably be still swarming in front of Tallin's defense, but you can create opportunities for the drakes to level
up by withdrawing one of Tallin's units and defeating the two trolls next to that opening, so that the trolls will be zone-locked and unable to get into the opening. The drakes will have the advantage that after they attack they can be healed by Tallin's healers, before the trolls retaliate.

Although you will be in deep negative gold during this one, don't succumb to the temptation to give all the villages to Krash. He can make use of them immediately, but that isn't important, as he starts with enough gold to recruit enough drakes for what you need. You will get a big early finish bonus, so seize villages with your forces in the east, and with your main force once you break out. It's essential to get more than 140 gold going into the next level. (Krash won't go negative, so he'll end up with 400-500 gold with the early finish bonus anyway.)

===Eastern Fortress===
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian or Ro'Sothian dies or turns run out
* Turns: 56/53/50/47 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag, Eryssa and a supporter

'''Strategy 1:''' The only good thing about drakes in mountains is that you can rush them away to heal once they get trashed. They have a much lower defense on mountains relative to non-drake units. So it's better for Tallin to recall L2 and L3 dwarves (maybe one L1 dwarf), and spread these along the line in the mountains - you probably can't get enough to avoid having quite a number of drakes here, but it limits the number of drakes that the enemy can trash per turn; and the limited mobility in the mountains means they can't always attack the drakes with the units that they want.

Use drakes first to finish off weakened enemies, and drake burners to soften up the higher level enemy melee units (try to avoid having many L1 drake units in the line at night, when they are extremely vulnerable). Tallin's higher level units are better used for attacks on fresh enemy units. Don't extend your drake line to the map edge any faster than needed - the AI won't deliberately try to outflank, he'll just try to wrap around the last unit in line. You want to minimise the number of drakes he can maul each turn. Get the two human healers up into the mountains, and wounded drakes should congregate behind the lines around these. The two liches are good front-line units here, as the high defense means the enemy melee troops can't batter them too much (their drain attacks tend to compensate for any health loss), and their magic attacks are perhaps the most potent on this terrain.

Meanwhile, the east side of your line starts in the village just E of the mountains, where Tallin should be - the enemy are generally afraid to attack him due to the Rod. The line east of here consists of the spectre, the shyde & sorceress, and a mix of drakes and any high-level human units in your auto-recall. (The drakes have only a 10% difference in defense on these terrains, and have better mobility over the river.) Use the shyde and sorceress to entangle the best enemy melee units each turn, and drakes to soften up and kill them.

You hold this line for 2 days, wearing through the enemy. Once they run low on units, the drakes become valuable for encircling isolated units, rolling up the flanks, and darting behind their lines to seize villages. Push south through the mountains, and use the wizards to blast the orc leaders.

'''Strategy 2:''' I use the same technique as Strategy 1 in the mountains, but a radically different strategy otherwise. I recalled all my veterans, sent the dwarves north, and almost everyone else directly west. I recruited as many Gryphons as I could with my money, and sent them, as well as Abhai, south to take the island. I also made sure to move Tallin and Krash near to the front lines. The sheer number of high-level units attacking the main front was too much for the orcs, and by turn 11 the dwarf/drake force had defeated the northern flank. I moved Krash into one of the leader castle squares in the fortress, and recruited a Drake Burner in every free square in the fortress. (If you still somehow have positive gold with Tallin, you can use a similar technique with him) By turn 12, the orcs' main front had also collapsed due to the Drake Burners, and I defeated the last orc leader on turn 16.

The gryphons in the south basically were slaughtered by turn 10. I only had two remaining with low health; I retreated these in case they would be useful for recall (20 gold vs. recruiting 40 gold). By then, however, the island was free from orcs and there was only a small band (~5-6) of one Orcish Warrior and several Wolf Riders left. Abhai easily slaughtered most of them in the water, and the healed surviving Gryphons killed the rest by turn 14.

The only problem with this strategy is that it puts you in deep negative gold, but the early finish bonus more than makes up for that.

'''Strategy 3:''' I managed to win this scenario (on Easy) only by sending the White mages / Mages of Light to the mountains to the west of Krash, along with every dwarf lord I could recall, while the elves, Abhai, and Camerin went south of the river. I put the liches on the mountain-peninsula so that they could attack many units. Krash recruited Burners and Clashers, with the occasional Fighter, and they planted themselves in the forest and grassland west of Tallin's keep. They died easily but did not fail completely, they held the line west and I did manage to level several drakes (of each line) up to at least Level 2. This is the only way I could win without getting veterans slaughtered, and even when they weren't slaughtered, the orcs were bold enough to walk up to Tallin's keep, attack him, and steal the villages. My "advisor" was a Huntsman, who died easily, so I just kept him back. The drakes that needed healing in the field or forest took advantages of nearby villages (there were some on an island south of Tallin's keep, some in the mountains, and some in the forest). The dwarves in the mountains went into nearby villages or the White Mages if they needed healing. Abhai as a Spectre did well in the far south against Wolf Riders, and the elves and the Great Mage did well in the forest on the edge of the island against the occasional Assassin or Wolf Rider. Later, I sent a drake or two that way. Once the front line of the orcs was eliminated, Krash and Tallin moved forward with all the troops, and sat in the keeps. Because of the unique way that the castle is designed, the orcs recruited units right next to my units, while I recruited units right next to theirs. I lost a good drake or two but otherwise did not suffer many problems.

===Get the Gold===
* Objectives: Defeat the orcs
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian or Ro'Sothian dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard/nightmare)
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag, Eryssa and a supporter
* Other: Save Sisal if at all possible. If you do, you get your gold from "The Pursuit" back

The primary challenge in this scenario is trying to save Sisal, and though it is not stated that Sisal's survival is essential, you do not get back the gold that you earned in "The Pursuit" if she dies. You really, really want that gold. Unfortunately, the AI controlling Sisal behaves strangely and she jumps into the river to be slaughtered easily. If you are desparate, an option is using the droid command to change Sisal to a human controller - that way, you control her and prevent her from dying within 3 turns.

The enemy is pretty strong so recruit with the drakes, elves and Tallin's crew. Level what units you can and focus on killing enemy units. Other than keeping Sisal alive this is a simple assault against strong enemies.

===Showdown===
* Objectives: Defeat the orcs
* Lose if: Tallin, Ro'Arthian, Ro'Sothian or Hamel dies or turns run out
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Tallin, Camerin, Abhai, Krash, Father Morvin, Sister Thera, Elenia, Stalrag, Eryssa and a supporter

Pull out all the stops, because this is it. The wall is defended by level 3 orcs (Warlords and Slurbows). You'll want to draw them off the walls before engaging them, they're dangerous enough as it is without the fortification bonus; hanging a unit or two just within their engagement range will do it. Because there are so many orcs, you need to be especially careful about neither leaving units isolated nor presenting unanchored flanks for them to swarm around (the drakes, in particular, should fort up in the northern camp until they've thinned out their attackers considerably). Get to the edge of the moat and then cycle in fresh units and expand along the edge of the moat. The enemy will probably swarm towards Tallin's units. Don't try and breakthrough. Just be content to kill the units that enter the moat.

Recruit lots of druids with the elves and send them to help out Tallin and the drakes. Other than that the same strategy applies: kill the units in the moat. If there is an opening, move in.

Same thing with the drakes. If you level a Burner, turn it into a Flare. Since you have lots of level 1's the leadership will be useful.

Hamel will tear up the western edge of the fort pretty well. Aid him with elves if you can and then follow his lead to attack from within the castle walls.

Recruit, recruit, recruit, especially with the drakes. Take out the level 3 wall defenders, wear down the attackers in the moat and punch through where you can. Somewhat tedious but inevitable with your massive gold reserves.

[[Category:Campaigns]]

DescentIntoDarkness

2010-09-15T18:47:34Z

Adeptus: /* Descent into Darkness */

=== Saving Parthyn ===
* Objectives: Defend the fort for two nights
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Drogan die
* Turns: 15
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman
You'll start the battle with three human soldiers. Recruit a lot of Walking Corpses.

Block the ford. Try to take advantage of terrain and time of day. You can take the opposite riverbank by rushing with your human units, but may get pushed back. That's okay, just try not to fight in the water while the enemy stands on the bank, or you will be at a disadvantage. Don't panic: once the allies arrive, they should make short work of the orcs.

Note: The scenario ends early if the orc leader is killed.

Spoiler: Your three human units have the "loyal" attribute, but don't bother trying to level them, because they go away at the end of the scenario. Likewise, all you can recruit are Walking Corpses, and they won't be worth recalling. If you're going to collect experience for anyone, it should be your main character. However, if a Walking Corpse kills something, you get another Walking Corpse.

=== A Peaceful Valley ===
* Objectives: Occupy all of the goblin villages
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 29/26/23 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk

0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, including those that you recapture. The key is to not capture many villages quickly. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly.

In most scenarios, bats are highly useful in remote village capturing, but not in this scenario, as they would have little chance against the guards.

Walking corpses, on the other hand, are more useful than normal. Use them on wounded goblins to snowball your forces. Also use Walking Corpses as placeholders on captured villages to prevent them from easily reverting to enemy hands.

To kill the enemy leader, zap him with your leaders. Walking Corpses, if are in the area, can assist.

Spoiler: Do not try to beat this scenario without entering the swamp. Once you enter the swamp with either Malin Keshar or Darken Volk you will get three Ghouls, without which the scenario would be close to impossible.

=== A Haunting in Winter ===
* Objectives: Clear the cave of enemies
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 36/34/32 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk
You can recruit Ghosts on this level.

It's important to not get bottled up in the passageway prior to the central chamber, or you will burn up a lot of turns. Use Ghosts to speedily enter the chamber. After a certain point, you are going to split your forces, with Ghosts heading to the dwarves in the northeast and your two leaders and ground forces headed to the outlaws in the southwest. So, you should recruit a lot of Ghosts, at least five. Bats are useful to snatch up villages.

This scenario is a good opportunity to gain experience for your Ghosts. While both the Wraith and Shadow units are nice, it is especially useful to have at least 4 Shadows by a certain scenario. Your Ghosts can get easy experience from killing the Dwarves as they wade through the swamp in the northeast, and you should be able to level one or more to Shadows. Then you can use a Shadow or two, accompanied by a Ghost or two, to kill the dwarven leader. Also note that there are two routes to the dwarven leader. One is through the swamp, but you can also send flying units over the chasm to the south of the swamp and attack the dwarves on two fronts.

Spoiler: At one point there's a special event: one of your Ghosts will rebel and run off to the outlaw's keep. For each turn until you kill him, another of your units will rebel. You'll want to keep all of your Ghosts close by until one rebels, and then kill the rebel quickly. So, delay your Dwarf hunting expedition until the rebellion occurs, or recruit several Ghosts and keep them together so that the rest can subdue the one that goes rogue.

=== Beginning of the Revenge ===
* Objectives: Defeat the orc leaders, move Malin Keshar to the mountain pass
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 36
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk
Starting with this mission you can recruit Skeletons and Skeleton Archers.

Understand that this is basically a leader assassination scenario. Note that the scenario ends when both orc leaders are dead; you do not need to move Malin Keshar to the signpost.

The mountainous geography begs you to use ghosts and their kin for mobility. Ghosts can cross the mountains and river left of your starting fortress. (So can Corpses, by the way, but slowly.) Unfortunately, the fire arrows are quite effective against ghosts, so tread carefully.

Players have used different strategies with success...

Option 1, assassination: Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively ghosts, shadows, and wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A reasonable minimal strike force for one leader would be 5 ghosts and a shadow. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.

Option 2, defeat in detail: Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes.

Option 3, feint: Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.

Spoiler: Be careful when moving non-flying units onto the ice next to the bridge which separates you from the orcs' valley, as the ice weakens when a non-flying unit starts a turn on it and weakened ice then breaks and drowns any unit which starts a turn on in. This even applies to Skeletons and Skeleton Archers! Use breaking ice to your advantage; try to lure high level orcs to their demise by placing ghosts in the middle of weakened ice.

=== Orc War ===
* Objectives: Defeat the orc leaders
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 30
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk
Starting with this mission you can recruit Dark Adepts.
There are a couple of ways to approach this scenario:

*One strategy is to recruit two major forces and send one south to hold back the orcs at the bridge (a Wraith does a good job of holding the bridge) then send the other force northwest to take out that leader first. At that point, if you've had particularly good luck on the the southern front you might want to go after that leader next, but more likely, you will want to recruit a few more units plus the units you used to kill the northwest leader and head south to kill the southwest orc leader.
*Another strategy is to recruit one large force and take out either the northwestern or southeastern orc leaders before the other orcish troops can catch up with you. Then you'll probably want to take out the southwestern orc leader. When I tried this I took heavier casualties and had less gold at the end of the scenario but it did work.
*If you've managed to acquire at least two Shadows you can try slipping them behind enemy lines and assassinating one of the orc leaders. If you have at least 4 Shadows your chances of success increase greatly.

Spoiler: After you kill two orc leaders the third will flee and this will end the scenario. You probably will want to postpone this as long as possible to allow your forces to gain experience.

=== Return to Parthyn ===
* Objectives: Kill Drogan then escape to the northwest
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die (except Drogan)
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre, if available

Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. A Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre will probably start with Malin. If you recall an appealing target like a Revenant into the keep's northwest hex, Drogan should run out to shoot some arrows at it. Between this and recalling another Wraith or Shadow as a backup plan, it should be easy to take out Drogan and discover, oops, the Parthyn townspeople hate you anyway. Wraiths and Shadows are particularly effective, since they can fly across the river quite quickly. After you kill Drogan, you should escape across the river and to the west.

Option 1: Kill the orcs so that you can flee across the ford. This shouldn't be a problem. What might be a problem is that the Parthyn troops will continue to attack you as you flee.

Option 2: Leave the ford open, and cross in water at far right, hoping for the orcs and village militia to clash and leave you alone, at least until the orcs are dead. As additional an additional distraction, you can send some Ghouls and Walking Corpses south/southwest in the forest. Both this and the first option have the disadvantage that you will lose all the villages you hold south of the river and will probably end up losing a bunch of gold but, oh well.

Option 3: Stay and fight. You don't <i>have</i> to flee immediately. But you face fairly strong opposition and will probably take enough casualties that it isn't really worth it to stay and fight longer than you need to. Also, you'll have to recruit enough units that you lose gold each turn, since there's no time limit, if you defeat the Parthyn townspeople after taking heavy enough casualties that you gain gold each turn, you can wait and make up the loss. It isn't really worth it, however, because you'll need your high level troops for the next mission.

===A Small Favor - Part One===
* Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter the manor
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk

First off, you can capture the free villages scattered around near your keep, but don't capture any enemy occupied villages.

Then there are a few options that players have tried with success:

Option 1, leader assassination: You should have at least 2 Shadows (or Nightgaunts), preferably more, to assassinate the leader. Their nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to the enemy leader. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you takeout the enemy leader, take out the rest of the human troops and capture the rest of the villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On the penultimate turn recruit all the units you will want to take forward into part 2; Wraiths and Shadows are particularly useful, while level 1 units are not. Then move Malin towards the manor. On the last turn move Malin into the manor to join Volk to end the scenario. While carry over gold won't help you in parts two and three (no recruiting), it will carry over to the next scenario.

Option 2, mage assassination: It is possible to win this part without any Shadows. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map as near to the entrance of the manor as possible while staying out of sight (you can see how much your enemies can see with Ctrl-v). Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Ghosts, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly.

Option 3, guard assassination: If you kill a guard in one turn, he won't have time to raise the alarm. Therefore, you can proceed across the map, assassinating guards one by one, until you get within strike distance of the leader.

===A Small Favor - Part Two===
* Objectives: Defeat Mage Lord Karres then move through the northwest passage
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario

* Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present
You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack.

Anyway, your first task is to kill Karres, who is a Great Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal, the Mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). Actually, most room only has one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages, but the room with Karres in it will also have two White Mages [Thrash: He just had a single Red Mage for me in 1.8.3.]. The invisibility of Shadows and Nightgaunts, in particular, is useful in wiping out Mages. If you let the Mages counter-attack, you will almost certainly lose one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.

There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.

===A Small Favor - Part Three===
* Objectives: Find the book and then escape
* Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
* Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario
* Other
** You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present
** You no longer control Darken Volk

Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.

===Alone at Last===
* Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle
* Lose if: Malin Keshar dies
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit
* Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book

The situation is that you've got to fight it out with Darken Volk. You probably don't have much money, which makes this difficult to win in a straightforward manner.

On turn 5, 6, or 7 (for hard, medium, or easy, respectively) Sir Cadaeus arrives to take revenge for your attack on the city of Tath. He sets up camp in the southeast corner of the map. His formidable forces will attack both you and Volk if given the opportunity. More usefully, Volk will attack <i>him</i>. In addition to sending his forces to attack Sir Cadaeus', Volk himself will normally dash into fray, to his doom.

After Volk dies, he leaves behind the book, which you need to retrieve and bring to your initial keep. Ghosts and Bats (and Spectres, Shadows, Wraiths, and Nightgaunts) can't carry the book.

On turn 9, 10, or 11 (for hard, medium, or easy, respectively) Dela Keshar will show up to the north, set up camp and send forces to attack you as well.

Note: On 1.8.3 and many earlier versions, Dela is impervius to your attacks, though Darken Volk's minions can both wound and kill her. This hardly seems fair, so you may wish to place a unit on what will be her central keep hex before she arrives. She will then appear one hex away and be unable to recruit, so long as you maintain a unit there. A Dark Sorcerer will hold her off.

For general strategy, players have had success with at least three alternatives, which all try to avoid combat to a greater or lesser extent...

Option 1, the Northern end around: Summon a few good troops and move everyone almost due north and then east and south towards Volk's keep, trying to avoid battle as long as possible. Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift their attention to the south.

Option 2, the Southern deception: In addition to an elite thrust to the North as above, add a fairly large and fast feint to the Southeast with several Ghosts and Bats to encourage Volk to go south. You must move far quickly to make a large effect.

Option 3, the Waiting game: Recruit just a couple of bats initially for village capturing out of range of the enemy. Once Sir Cadeus' forces arrive, begin recruiting in earnest and make a dash for the book. Be warned that you will probably lose a lot of the units in the process, so try to avoid recalling troops that you might need in a later scenario.

Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your keep.

===Descent into Darkness===
* Objectives: Defeat the troll leader
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Mal Keshar
The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your undead minions. There's no particularly good defense against these things, but I will note that all the trolls also deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.

Addition by cMaster: Wraiths/Spectres are actually quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. So you just have to make sure, that you get to the Shamans before they get to you. If you can't take out one of them, stay out of his reach.

Addition by smenze: I just finished up this scenario and it was as easy as I have ever played. After the intro, pretty much run by past the creatures that are there for you to regain your strength on. If you get really unlucky with your counter attacks, you can die this way, but normally you won't. Grab the castle on the west side of the passageway and recall some Nightgaunts (3 was more then enough for me). I just sent them straight up the passage to the main castle, and stabbed the troll leader to death leading to an instant victory.

Addition by Adeptus: Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a tree where an Ancient Woose waits to ambush. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily. Enjoy its dying animation! At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to sorround them one by one.

===Eternal Night===
* Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero
* Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Mal Keshar
Play this scenario as many times as you want to. If Malin is defeated, the defeating hero will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.

Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!

[[Category:Campaigns]]