The Battle for Wesnoth Wiki - User contributions [en]

Sceptre of Fire

2012-02-06T03:00:28Z

Sojourner7: /* The Dragon */

=== A Bargain Is Struck ===
* Objectives: Transport caravans to the castle and move Alanin to the castle, or defeat the elvish leader
* Lose if: Haldric, Rugnur 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 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 your units to shepherd the caravans, cutting it off from the elves, until it reaches the mountains. 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. Use this chance to gain some experience for Rugnur in particular.

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[Thrash: In 1.8.4 on hard the above seems to be terribly out of date.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.]

=== Closing The Gates ===
* Objectives: Close the gates by having a unit standing on all six glyphs simultaneously
* Lose if: Rugnur or Baglur die or time runs out
* Turns: 15
* Starting units: Rugnur and Baglur
* 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 two thunderers down that way as well.

Send Rugnur and one or two fighters and a thunderer down a passage and send the rest of your forces to kill the trolls at the other passage. Once they are dead, close the glyph beside the side entrance. This will close it (I managed to shut a troll whelp outside, who promptly killed two elf scouts over the course of the scenario and managed to level up :D). Leave two behind to hold those glyphs in the passage you picked and repeat for the other passage. Then once you have done that, 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 any soldiers on the two remaining glyphs.

=== Searching for the Runecrafter ===
* Objectives: Send a non-Gryphon to Thursagan's village and bring him back to the signpost
* Lose if: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin or Krawg die or time runs out
* Turns: 20
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin, Krawg and a Gryphon

As soon as you move one of your units, you'll encounter Krawg and his other friendly Gryphon. Thursagan is hiding in a random village. 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. Mostly Wolves. Maintain a defensive position in your mountain stronghold and send your Gryphons to find Thursagan. Then send a dwarf to bring him back.

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

=== Gathering Materials ===
* Objectives: 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 Dwarvish 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 play slightly differently

The coal deposits are near the northwest troll and the southeast troll. The gold deposit is near the village in 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 gold is easy and the northwest coal can maybe be snatched before you kill the Troll up there. Obviously don't let that Miner die.

Recruit 2 keepfuls of units and get to the middle 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. Oh, and you only have one village and no healers. The AI doesn't like attacking your Runesmiths/Thursagan when they are on good defensive ground. I guess the outcome is too unfavorable given the 70% magical chance to hit. 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, Krawg, Thursagan, Durstorn, 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 Alanin to the southern border east of the river, move Rugnur to the northeast cave
* 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, 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 (Gryphons?) for cover and village flagging), and dig in. Rotate your units and try not to lose to 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. Yes, you can also win by killing all the leaders. 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

First off, this level is the last time you will see any of these units. So, don't do anything to cute with them. 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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, and Baglur

The elves and dwarves don't really come after you. Recruit/recall with all your gold and move everyone through the cave. The biggest surprise is the Bats. There are lots of them. The best way to kill them is with Scouts' ranged attack or Runesmiths' magical attack. Remeber they are level 0 so don't exert a zone of control. The Dragon might come out but there is no advantage in killing it. Just move past it.

Move Thursagan to the forge and then hit next turn 9 times.

[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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, Baglur and many others

You start with a bunch of units which is good because you can't recall any. 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.

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 ====

Don't waste your time fighting the trolls - use a few units to slow them down and go directly south to the glyph. 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.

-shadowblack

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

Sceptre of Fire

2012-02-06T03:00:00Z

Sojourner7: /* The Dragon */

=== A Bargain Is Struck ===
* Objectives: Transport caravans to the castle and move Alanin to the castle, or defeat the elvish leader
* Lose if: Haldric, Rugnur 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 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 your units to shepherd the caravans, cutting it off from the elves, until it reaches the mountains. 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. Use this chance to gain some experience for Rugnur in particular.

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.]

=== Closing The Gates ===
* Objectives: Close the gates by having a unit standing on all six glyphs simultaneously
* Lose if: Rugnur or Baglur die or time runs out
* Turns: 15
* Starting units: Rugnur and Baglur
* 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 two thunderers down that way as well.

Send Rugnur and one or two fighters and a thunderer down a passage and send the rest of your forces to kill the trolls at the other passage. Once they are dead, close the glyph beside the side entrance. This will close it (I managed to shut a troll whelp outside, who promptly killed two elf scouts over the course of the scenario and managed to level up :D). Leave two behind to hold those glyphs in the passage you picked and repeat for the other passage. Then once you have done that, 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 any soldiers on the two remaining glyphs.

=== Searching for the Runecrafter ===
* Objectives: Send a non-Gryphon to Thursagan's village and bring him back to the signpost
* Lose if: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin or Krawg die or time runs out
* Turns: 20
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin, Krawg and a Gryphon

As soon as you move one of your units, you'll encounter Krawg and his other friendly Gryphon. Thursagan is hiding in a random village. 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. Mostly Wolves. Maintain a defensive position in your mountain stronghold and send your Gryphons to find Thursagan. Then send a dwarf to bring him back.

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

=== Gathering Materials ===
* Objectives: 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 Dwarvish 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 play slightly differently

The coal deposits are near the northwest troll and the southeast troll. The gold deposit is near the village in 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 gold is easy and the northwest coal can maybe be snatched before you kill the Troll up there. Obviously don't let that Miner die.

Recruit 2 keepfuls of units and get to the middle 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. Oh, and you only have one village and no healers. The AI doesn't like attacking your Runesmiths/Thursagan when they are on good defensive ground. I guess the outcome is too unfavorable given the 70% magical chance to hit. 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, Krawg, Thursagan, Durstorn, 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 Alanin to the southern border east of the river, move Rugnur to the northeast cave
* 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, 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 (Gryphons?) for cover and village flagging), and dig in. Rotate your units and try not to lose to 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. Yes, you can also win by killing all the leaders. 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

First off, this level is the last time you will see any of these units. So, don't do anything to cute with them. 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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, and Baglur

The elves and dwarves don't really come after you. Recruit/recall with all your gold and move everyone through the cave. The biggest surprise is the Bats. There are lots of them. The best way to kill them is with Scouts' ranged attack or Runesmiths' magical attack. Remeber they are level 0 so don't exert a zone of control. The Dragon might come out but there is no advantage in killing it. Just move past it.

Move Thursagan to the forge and then hit next turn 9 times.

[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.]

[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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, Baglur and many others

You start with a bunch of units which is good because you can't recall any. 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.

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 ====

Don't waste your time fighting the trolls - use a few units to slow them down and go directly south to the glyph. 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.

-shadowblack

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

Sceptre of Fire

2012-02-04T02:27:51Z

Sojourner7: /* Towards the Caves */

=== A Bargain Is Struck ===
* Objectives: Transport caravans to the castle and move Alanin to the castle, or defeat the elvish leader
* Lose if: Haldric, Rugnur 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 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 your units to shepherd the caravans, cutting it off from the elves, until it reaches the mountains. 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. Use this chance to gain some experience for Rugnur in particular.

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.]

=== Closing The Gates ===
* Objectives: Close the gates by having a unit standing on all six glyphs simultaneously
* Lose if: Rugnur or Baglur die or time runs out
* Turns: 15
* Starting units: Rugnur and Baglur
* 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 two thunderers down that way as well.

Send Rugnur and one or two fighters and a thunderer down a passage and send the rest of your forces to kill the trolls at the other passage. Once they are dead, close the glyph beside the side entrance. This will close it (I managed to shut a troll whelp outside, who promptly killed two elf scouts over the course of the scenario and managed to level up :D). Leave two behind to hold those glyphs in the passage you picked and repeat for the other passage. Then once you have done that, 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 any soldiers on the two remaining glyphs.

=== Searching for the Runecrafter ===
* Objectives: Send a non-Gryphon to Thursagan's village and bring him back to the signpost
* Lose if: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin or Krawg die or time runs out
* Turns: 20
* Starting units: Rugnur, Baglur, Alanin, Krawg and a Gryphon

As soon as you move one of your units, you'll encounter Krawg and his other friendly Gryphon. Thursagan is hiding in a random village. 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. Mostly Wolves. Maintain a defensive position in your mountain stronghold and send your Gryphons to find Thursagan. Then send a dwarf to bring him back.

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

=== Gathering Materials ===
* Objectives: 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 Dwarvish 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 play slightly differently

The coal deposits are near the northwest troll and the southeast troll. The gold deposit is near the village in 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 gold is easy and the northwest coal can maybe be snatched before you kill the Troll up there. Obviously don't let that Miner die.

Recruit 2 keepfuls of units and get to the middle 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. Oh, and you only have one village and no healers. The AI doesn't like attacking your Runesmiths/Thursagan when they are on good defensive ground. I guess the outcome is too unfavorable given the 70% magical chance to hit. 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, Krawg, Thursagan, Durstorn, 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 Alanin to the southern border east of the river, move Rugnur to the northeast cave
* 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, 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 (Gryphons?) for cover and village flagging), and dig in. Rotate your units and try not to lose to 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. Yes, you can also win by killing all the leaders. 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

First off, this level is the last time you will see any of these units. So, don't do anything to cute with them. 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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, and Baglur

The elves and dwarves don't really come after you. Recruit/recall with all your gold and move everyone through the cave. The biggest surprise is the Bats. There are lots of them. The best way to kill them is with Scouts' ranged attack or Runesmiths' magical attack. Remeber they are level 0 so don't exert a zone of control. The Dragon might come out but there is no advantage in killing it. Just move past it.

Move Thursagan to the forge and then hit next turn 9 times.

[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.]

=== 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: n/a
* Starting units: Rugnur, Thursagan, Krawg, Baglur and many others

You start with a bunch of units which is good because you can't recall any. 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.

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 ====

Don't waste your time fighting the trolls - use a few units to slow them down and go directly south to the glyph. 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.

-shadowblack

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

LegendofWesmere

2011-04-20T00:07:05Z

Sojourner7: /* The Uprooting */ Changed for 1.9.5.

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 sylves, 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 sylves and shydes. So it really pays to level shamans, level shamans and level shamans.

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 grand marshal. His leadership skills will prove invaluable when you are stuck with a level 1 army.

== The Uprooting ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost
* 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 can't beat the enemy leaders (you have too little gold, only first level units, and a stringent turn limit) and you're not expected to try. Recruit just enough units to screen Kalenz and Landar (about a keep or a keep and a half's worth) and run everybody to the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Try to send at least one rider to grab villages, including one to the north of your ally's keep—if the orcs attack him before the scenario ends, you will inherit the ally's units (and you'll keep them for future recall if you run them south to join the rest of your army).

'''Alternate strategy: '''
As with the first scenario in HttT, an effective strategy is to split your leader from your main army. Send Kalenz due west and then south to the sign-post, while the rest of your army moves more southwest to distract the south-west orcs. Since the starting time of day means you will meet the orcs just as day is ending, it is both possible and a good idea to keep engagements to a minimum - just lure the orcs away from Kalenz without getting into a fight. From my experience, the AI has difficulty making up its mind what to do with the southwestern orcs, especially if you grab the eastern villages, and Kalenz should be able to easily sneak by on the western edge of the map to the signpost without any obstructions. I was able to finish the scenario on hard difficulty on turn 6 with 0 losses and level Anduilas, your loyal elf fighter to level 2. One full castle of recruits is probably more than enough. Remember your goal is only to distract, not kill, and the combined upkeep of your units and your ally's that he gives you on turn 3 or so will give you negative income if you recruit too much.

'''New For 1.9.5'''
As of v1.9.5 (Medium) this has changed. There is no longer any signpost. Instead the victory condition is to kill any one of the orc leaders. And for the bonus, keep Velon alive. This is easy to do, there is an orc leader less than 10 hexes to the east and he can only recuit 3 units per turn. I just recruited a single keep and then swarmed him, killing him on Turn 5 (out of 17). But the problem with this strategy is that there is no opportunity to level up any of my units. Which bodes ill for the future. ~~ Sojourner

== 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. Send a disposable unit or two to the middle island. Put a unit in the water where a troll will go to the east bank in order to attack. The unit won't live but you'll get a bunch of allies.

Because your units will be mostly first level, you need as many of them as you can afford to survive this scenario. Archers will be the most useful to recall/recruit because the trolls do not have a ranged attack. Though archers are needed to deal enough damage to the trolls it is a good idea to recall/recruit a number of shamans as well. On the one hand they can level quite easily fighting the high-level trolls, and on the other hand they make your enemies a lot less dangerous through their slowing attack.

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 a rider or two out 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.

Some Observations (for Hardest Difficulty, but also applicable to other levels):
# It's not necessary to lure the trolls to step onto the dwarf side of the river by sacrificing a unit. It seems the trolls will go visit the dwarves on their own without needing any encouragement.
# 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. Use shamans to slow and don't be afraid to put one unit in water if you can get a kill and then block. The dwarves help by putting units in water and doing other things to distract the trolls and draw fire away from you.
# Sorceresses are very effective at killing trolls, since arcane is the only attack type trolls have negative resistance to. Try to get a few by feeding kills to shamans. They also become incredibly useful later in the campaign, so it will be well worth the effort.

== 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 seven turns you are controlling the defenders of the Ka'lian. See all those Orcish Assassins in the water? You probably don't want to have all your units poisoned to death. Recruit Shamans to sit behind the defenders. They won't be able to cure, but they will prevent the loss of 8 HP per turn. If an Elvish Archer is poisoned, go ahead and use its ranged attack on an Assassin, otherwise try to manage your poisoned units somewhat prudently. 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. When turn 7 is done Kalenz arrives and you lose control of these defenders. If you can, move some units as far west as you can (if the attack has wound down). This seems to help the AI attack the westernmost orc leader, which is useful.

When you take over with Kalenz make your stand in the woods just to the southwest of your keep and to the immediate north of the Ka'lian. Use Elvish Shamans to slow powerful units, and recruit lots of archers. Send some riders to grab villages— it should be relatively low-risk and the gold will be useful for the next scenario (note that you can't cross the river on the far eastern edge of the map). If you manage your troops correctly, you can level a number of them which is a very good idea to get through the next few scenarios.

== 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

Send your army en masse to the keep in the northwest first; that's where the Shyde and the gold are. Then turn east to take out the other saurian. 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 not to position any units where a saurian can attack them from swampy ground; and 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). Try and kill the Augurs with your fighter line and if possible slow the Skirmishers. The Skirmishers have a lot of movement points; make sure that wounded units are safe.

== 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

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 and keep on good terrain (or at least keep the saurians out of good terrain) and form a defensive line (against Skirmishers) each turn. Kill the southern leader first. See that temple? That's the treasury. DO NOT go in there. When you go in saurians pop out. Wait until you are ready to kill them to trigger this trap.

When you've dealt with the southern leader and the treasury you can either take an Elvish Scout to the treasury to pick up the gold and return it to the sign post 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.

== 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.

== 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. Don't do the obvious thing here—i.e., attacking the trolls first, because they're the nearest enemy—that will just get Galtrid, your ally holding the Kal'ian, killed, causing defeat. Instead, make your stand in the woods just north of the Kal'ian, taking care to assume a position that will let you defend both against the trolls and against Urug-Pir's and Mordrum's orc troops that will be coming east from the other side of the river. (If you have enough troops, this time it will be useful to move some of them to the river bank to attack the orcs while they're still in the water.) 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 Olurf and his dwarves won't show up until the third day, so don't get sloppy about formation and protecting the wounded.

Note for directing the AI:
Your south-westmost ally is too weak to survive unaided where he is. So it is a good idea to wait until he has recruited as much as he can before telling him to move his leader to Kal'ian. 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.
(At the moment, you will have to debug the scenario before playing it, since Galtrid does not recruit at all. Hopefully it won't take long until a debuged version is shipped with the game.)

== 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.

As for experience, 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. Recruit just one keepful of troops. Send a dwarf-heavy squad to the left (closer mountains) and an elf-heavy one to the right (more forest). If you recruit more than one keepful Kalenz will have a much tougher time crossing the river.

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.

You can distract the serpent by having an Elvish Scout make his way to the western edge of the river bank. When the serpent shows up the rider can distract it with his bow.

== Cliffs of Thoria ==
* Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost and 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, some of your enemies are level 4 Yetis. Split 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.

== 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

Your enemies here are drakes and trolls. This is in your favor because the scenario starts at night, when drakes are weakest. 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. Split your forces. Send half of your troops east along the road first to Crelanu's keep (if you don't, he may get killed before you can kill off the drakes) to save him and kill the troll leader (whose keep is close by). Take the remaining troops west to kill the drake leader.

== 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: 14/16/18 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

The enemy is in three places: the northwest, the northeast (trolls) and the southwest. Only the northeast trolls won't get reinforcements. So the only leaders to focus on eliminating are the trolls. Your recruits/recalls need to do three things: 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 their aren't a lot of trolls. Slow with some shaman, use the forest to your benefit and you should defeat them soon. 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 outcome is to team up with them and crush the first wave. When the reinforcements come you should be in a good position to defeat them (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. Also, three elves will arrive along the western edge of the map. Have them come and help out.

You may want to recruit a scout or two at the beginning. Along with the horseman you get 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. 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). Slyphs 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 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 bunch 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.

== 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: 40/36/32 (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!

The best place to make a stand is probably near the patch of forest in the middle. 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 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). Save any units from the shaman line - they will stay on your side and be usable later

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.

== 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

This is another running game, on the same map as the first scenario; since Landar has betrayed Kalenz, most elves' hands have turned against our hero. The Landar and Olurf units gone, and so is most of your recall list. Recruit enough units to screen Kalenz and Cleodil and run for the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map.Because most of the units ranged against you will be second level or higher, this will take a bit of ingenuity unless you can recruit a lot of units for guard duty. The best choice is probably to recruit Elvish Scouts. You are using their ZoC to keep the attackers away from Kalenz. Don't try and be fancy.

== 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 in the far southeast. If you have been building a formidable "air force" (shaman line) you can beat this level very easily.
* The AI leader southeast of your starting keep will make a severe tactical blunder, capturing the only village in range on turn 1, leaving him utterly exposed with enemies nearby. With the select group of loyal troops (and any Slyphs available for recall) and proper positioning on turn 1, it is trivial to eliminate the enemy leader on turn 2. If you can't kill him or ZoC him in turn 2, slow him. That will prevent him from getting to back to the keep to recruit. The battle is over as soon as one of your units moves next to Landar, so let him march his troops north to attack your ally. Recruit a squad of scouts (or quick units) and send them west, timing it so that they reach Landar's keep the turn after he moves his troops out of range. Reach Landar's keep and you'll have plenty of gold to finish the game.

If you don't have enough units from the shaman line for the quick kill, try this:
* 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 necessary, leave a few units at the river bank to slow the brown elf units that will pursue you; there is a village on a peninsula in the river near your keep that may be useful in this regard. If you need to, make a stand in and about your ally's keep, though depending upon how well you delay the brown enemy 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.

Remember you don't have to kill all the enemies. Just kill the southeast leader and then sneak a fast unit in next to Landar.

== 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

Recall any remaining veteran troops, then recruit an army of level 1 elves. Send out riders to grab villages early, and 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.

== Epilogue ==

Story only.

HeirToTheThrone

2011-04-17T03:14:26Z

Sojourner7: /* Scenario 18 - A Choice Must Be Made */ Easy on v1.9.5

This is a walkthrough of '''Heir to the Throne''', the campaign featuring Konrad. It contains spoilers.

The suggestions herein are based on the "Medium" and "Hard" difficulty levels. It should be possible to win the "Easy" difficulty level without trying very hard if you are an accomplished gamer. If you feel comfortable with turn-based games, especially ones featuring units moving on a hex map, then you can play the Tutorial and then dive right into "Medium" to get a feel for the elements of the game. After you have played a few scenarios and are ready to restart from the beginning (and yes, it is very likely you will have to restart the first time you play Wesnoth), try reading [[AdvancedTactics]]. You should also be familiar with the basics in [[WesnothManual]] -- this is a walkthrough, not an exposition of basic game mechanics.

Each scenario has an individual forum thread where you can provide feedback to the authors. See also the forum posts [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3601 Suggestions for Heir to the Throne walkthrough] and [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4026 Yet another "Heir to the Throne" walktrough] (sic) for more. [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7064 Ye Compleat Walkthrough To "Heir To The Throne"] is a detailed guide, with illustrations, to the first several scenarios.

Finally, some [http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/my-wesnoth-replays-online replays] were posted by Uwe Hermann.

'''Warning spoilers ahead!'''

== Scenario 1 - The Elves Besieged ==
Scenario objectives: Both Konrad and Delfador must survive, and Konrad must escape to the signpost in the northwest corner of the map.

The orcs as well as your allies will levy a great many troops, you'll soon find yourself between the lines in a huge battle. All those units slugging it out can take quite some time, you may want to try two options on the Preferences dialog, "Accelerated Speed" or maybe even "Skip AI Moves".

This scenario is a "runner" scenario; on turn one, recruit a castle full of fresh recruits, and immediately make a break for it! If you're new to Wesnoth, getting Konrad out of there in one piece will be difficult enough and may require you to start over a couple of times. Hint: don't keep your units all lumped around Konrad, as a large host will attract the enemies' attention.

Terrain dictates two routes to the signpost: west to the druid and then north, or north over the bridge and then west. Either way, you should send Delfador and most of your army straight north. This is a ruse, the sole purpose is to lure the enemy towards the road while Konrad (with only one or two level-1 bodyguards) makes his way towards the exit. There's no chance of winning, your troops should perform a skirmishing retreat westwards into the forest.

Other than getting Konrad on his way, the inofficial objective of this scenario is to gain some experience for your troops. Experience is gained by fighting; once a level of experience is reached, your units will "level up" and become more powerful units. Killing an opponent will give much more experience than just fighting, so you should try to arrange it in such a way that the unit you want to upgrade gets to deliver the coup de grace.

Now a few words about the units at your disposal. In-game, you cannot check the data of unknown units; if you want to take a peek anyway, check the [http://www.wesnoth.org/units/ Wesnoth Unit Tree].

* Fighters and Archers. Melee and ranged, all elvish warriors are capable of both, it's more a matter of emphasis than an actual distinction. When they level up, most should become Heroes and Rangers, repectively; you'll only need one or two Captains, and probably are better off without any Marksmen: spellcasters will serve the same purpose much better.

* Shamans are minor healers. As a rule of thumb, you should never enter into any scenario without at least one healer. Leveling up a Shaman is somewhat tricky, as they can do only very little damage. If you use stronger units to knock an enemy unit's HP down, you can move your shamans up from behind the lines to administer the finishing blow. As difficult as it is to level up a shaman, it is well worth the hassle. Druids will be standard healers, you want one (and possibly only one) of those as soon as possible. A Sorceress cannot heal at all, but is a powerful spellcaster. At their higest level, both will learn to fly and become very mobile.

* Scouts may seem weak, but there's more to them than meets the eye. While most riders suffer severe penalties in difficult terrain, the elvish variant can cross rivers, swamps and even mountains rather quickly and will usually even receive a reasonable defense modifier. Insofar, they're less like horsemen and more like fast infantry. Whether you employ them in numbers is a matter of taste, however, you should always remember that you have these extremely mobile units at your disposal.

* Konrad, your leader, starts most scenarios at a keep where he may recruit some troops, but that doesn't mean that he should stay there forever: Being always on the map, he may just as well make himself useful. Getting him to level two will earn him a bow as well as the "leadership" ability, both will come in handy time and again.

* Delfador, the Elder Mage, is insanely powerful (at least compared to your other troops for the time being). Mages usually aren't very sturdy, but at level 5 he has so many hit points that you don't have to worry too much about him – he'll survive quite a few counterattacks. Don't overcommit him, but the first few scenarios depend on his abilities to instantly slay nearly any opponent and soaking up some damage that would otherwise kill several of your (still minor) units.

Remember to use the CTRL-v command to see how far all enemy units will be able to move on their next turn. Click on an unoccupied hex and then move the cursor over an enemy unit to see how far that unit will be able to move. Be careful with your heroes and constantly think of their safety.

Early finish bonus: 32 gold per turn.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2881 forum discussion].

== Scenario 2 - Blackwater Port ==
Scenario objectives: Survive 12 turns (9 on Hard), or kill the enemy leader.

The opening dialog will introduce a new friend, Haldiel, a loyal Horseman. The importance of loyalty is explained in [http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/CampaignStrategies#The_importance_of_loyalty Campaign Strategies].

'''Horsemen'''
:Now that's cavalry as we know it. Their charges can be truly devastating if somewhat suicidal, as your ally will demonstrate soon. Employing charge attacks takes a little getting used to, as it differs so much from ordinary melee. Keep an eye on the "Damage Calculations" until you get the knack of it. 

Back to topic: If you recall units, choose those that have enough experience to be worth the 2 to 6 gold difference over fresh recruits, or who have specific traits that you need. Hole up in the forest on your side of the road (so the enemy has to stand on the plains to face you). Feel free to seize a few villages from your ally, he won't complain. If you have a unit to spare, you may even take the villages next his castle. Matter of fact, this is a prudent move – after all, Sir Kaylan would only use the gold to recruit troops that would steal your experience!

You can also send Haldiel west as fast as possible and attempt to take the village due south of the enemy castle. This will draw some orcs south, reducing the pressure on your actual army and giving you more freedom to shape the battle. However, be careful to not let him get pinned down and killed.

Sir Kaylan will send one or two horsemen to the enemy lines to assist you. Although these horsemen are not under your direct control, they can serve as a distraction if you manoeuver your forces properly, taking the brunt during the enemy's turn to attack.

The first night will be tough, be prepared to lose some units; but if you use the terrain to your advantage, you should have enough of an army left to launch a serious counterattack during the next day. The momentum should keep you going even through the next night and you may soon find yourself besieging the enemy keep. However, the actual objective is merely to survive – if everything fails, you may still retreat behind the swordsmen guarding Sir Kaylans fortress.

There is an early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader, however, it will probably be small. In other words: rushing it won't be worthwhile, instead you should play it safe: manoeuver carefully and try to get some experience to those units that need it most. By the end of this scenario, you really ought to have a Druid – that's absolutely vital. Next in line should be an elvish Fighter (make him a Captain) and Konrad, anything else is optional. But the more the merrier as they say.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2929 forum discussion].

== Scenario 3 - Isle of Alduin ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

The key to victory is to control the villages, earning the gold you need to recruit or recall troops. You have the option to send the majority of your army west or south with village grabbers going the opposite direction. If you choose to send your army west (recommended) send a scout and an archer south, grabbing alternating villages. Done intelligently they will each grab 1 village per turn until they are near the opponents keep. Be careful of engaging the enemy on the west flank near the hills at night: this is where they shine. Back off to the forests and wait for a more favorable time of day if necessary.

The following strategy works well if you take care of your unit placement. Protect units you cannot afford to lose from multiple attacks at night or when weakened, particularly new horsemen and magi.

First recall or recruit 3 elvish scouts. Send two scouts to the southern villages, and the third to the village to the northwest. Recruit 3 fighters; send one to the south and the other two to the southwest. This works best if one scout is "quick" and the fighter recruited to fill the southeastern hex of your castle is also "quick". If not you may have to modify this strategy. Send Delfador up to the northwest on the first turn to find the mage and send the mage down to the village next to the castle. Konrad should take two nearby villages in the first two turns, because you have no money left anyway.

One of the scouts goes as far south as possible, taking villages and distracting the enemy. This scout is usually destroyed by turn 4. That's OK. The other scout in the south usually has to retreat to survive. You try to take all the villages in the south you can and then reinforce the south slowly and move south. Now your main push is in the west because most villages are there and you need an income of over 20 per turn to recall all of your good troops. I usually use the scout I have sent to the northwest village on the island to take all of the far northwest villages. Delfador can destroy an enemy unit each turn, especially saurians, because these pesky units can kill weakened units in the rear. Horsemen take too long to cross the forest south of your castle but are strong on the western plains during daytime. Send newly-recruited horsemen to the west along with magi. A shaman is useful to the south and later one can be sent to the west.

Approaching turn 10-12, you should have assembled two reasonably powerful forces on each side of the lake. The westerly one usually is based on Delfador and horsemen-mage combos with fighters and archers for ZOC purposes, and the eastern force almost entirely of elves. Remember magi work best against trolls and grunts, and horsemen against archers.

Move south in tight groups, trying not to get too aggressive at night with the west group, until they meet at the far southern end of the island, and assault the castle together.

If you are a new player, you've probably been focusing on game mechanics and how the units and terrain interact. If so, it's time to give serious thought to leveling up some units by allowing them to strike the killing blow. When Konrad or an elven fighter is at level 2, they get the "leadership" skill. When a shaman levels up, they get the "cure" skill.

Hardly any player notices this, but this scenario offers the opportunity for some extra experience at the expense of very little gold. The early finish bonus is 38, but there are 36 villages on the island, so if you control all villages, you only lose 2 gold per turn (or only 1.6 gold, since only 80% can be retained - should be less than 24, since you hardly ever finish more than 15 turns early). So instead of killing the remaining enemies - especially the enemy leader - you might encircle them and reduce their health to a minimum. If you do not attack them in the subsequent turns, they will neither attack nor move, thus regain 2 HP per turn and will eventually be healthy enough to stand an attack of your weaker units. This is a relatively safe way to milk some extra XPs out of them for your weaker units (preferably magi and shamans). While milking level 1 units may not be very rewarding, milking the level 2 leader might easily give 20 extra XPs.

A note about playing with Magi: They are weak units, but become important later in the game. Over the next few levels, you'll want to level at least two Magi to White Magi for later in the game; they have an arcane (or holy) attack which does incredible amounts of damage to the undead. Fire Magi can eventually level up to level 4 Great Magi, which are walking killing machines, and Fire Magi do decent damage to most other units, especially trolls and skeletons. Magi are weak, however, so they need to be guarded by stronger units. Don't let the enemy have more than one attack position on them.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2959 forum discussion].

== Scenario 4 - Bay of Pearls ==
Scenario objectives: Kill one or both enemy leaders.

Opening moves: On the first turn, have Konrad recruit or recall some units. Which units, and in which order, is your first tactical decision. If you recruit/recall in pairs, with one fast (6 movement points or more) and one slow unit, then one will be able to move onto the island the next turn, while the other is still wading through the river.

Then, move Konrad to the cage on the island just to the east. This will free some mermen. (How many depends on whether you are playing on Easy, Medium, or Hard.) One of these can go open the second cage, and so on: by the end of your very first turn, you should have five mermen in the water.

Watch out: there's one cage far out at sea that's easily overlooked. The first Merman you set free tells you as much, but if you skip the message... Anyway, it is guarded by two nagas. Send two or (at most) three Mermen up there and *do not* fight it out: get the cage first, then kill the nagas with the help of the mermen from that cage. It holds at least four Mermen, on of them an Initiate. The latter may become a healer, try to get her experienced as soon as possible.

Even further north than the last cage there's a trident in the water. It will confer a powerful ranged attack to its bearer. Have a "quick" merman pick it up (who should eventually become a Hoplite).

The remaining mermen should try to hold the sea leaders' recruits at bay. Mermen and nagas both have high defense in water, so combat can be a bit slow and frustrating. Concentrate three or four mermen on a single enemy unit at a time, rather than spreading your attacks piecemeal. Don't push too hard, especially not at night when your attacks are weak. Keeping your loyal mermen alive is more important than the possession of a village, and things will look much better on the next day. If that doesn't suffice, the troops from the deep-sea cage may lend a hand.

It will be nigh impossible for your horsemen and elves to wade to the island to fight the sea leader in time, so eventually your need to do this. The Storm Trident and the Initiate both have magic attacks (70% to-hit regardless of terrain) and should go a long way... you better attack him during the day, even if it means that you need to wait for a few turns.

On land, you have to fight off a wave of orcs and wolves. Your decision is how far west to engage the enemy, though really, you have little choice: You are hindered by the limited recruitment you can do each turn, and how long it takes your elves and horsemen to trickle across the river. Some wolves may reach you in the night, but the bulk of his army won't arrive until daybreak. Press hard during the day, and there will be little left of his army when the night comes.

Careful management of your killing blows should allow several units to get to Level 2. A charging horseman does so much damage it will be easy for the horsemen to get all the kills, but try to get at least Konrad, your loyal mage, and an elven fighter to level-2 (if you haven't already).

The outcome of this battle affects the next scenario you play. If you kill the sea leader you wind up on Isle of the Damned. If you kill the land leader you wind up on Muff Malal's Peninsula. If you kill both, you can choose (and get an early finish bonus).

New players should take the land route to Muff Malal's Peninsula, where you can easily level up many units or collect an early finish bonus. Experienced players or those who are looking for an interesting tactical exercise may wish to consider the sea route to the Isle of the Damned, where you will find a loyal White Mage who *might* join you... if you meet some very tough winning conditions. Either choice will be a battle against undead.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3022 forum discussion].

== Diverging campaign path ==
=== Scenario 5A - Muff Malal's Peninsula ===
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

This is an easy scenario, and your aim here should be to build up your gold by controlling most villages, while earning experience against enemy forces. The enemy recruits bats to capture villages, and hordes of Walking Corpses to keep you busy. The occasional Dark Adept can be dangerous on Hard difficulty, but is vulnerable to melee attack, especially from knights.

One approach is to recall a few level 2 units supported by a mage. These units build a defensive position in the central part of the map, using hills and forest for cover, and hold off the first wave of Walking Corpses. Mounted troops capture villages in the north and west, and can charge down the flanks at daytime. A merman or two distract enemy bats and capture sea villages. If you can recall the merman that picked up the trident in Bay of Pearls, it will be able to dispatch bats easily on its own.

During daytime, your main force advances to one of the villages in the south-east, where you wait for more Walking Corpses to attack. A level 2 melee unit (eg. Elvish Captain) can use the village defense bonus to survive attacks, and heal between turns. By the time it is low on hit points, it should be advancing to level 3.

You should now control most villages and have some gold, so recruit or recall additional troops. Launch an offensive with your central force, supported by your horsemen advancing at the sides. Don't forget to use Konrad in the attack.

Try to attack with human units only at day, when the undead are at their weakest, and hold the lines with your elves at night.

Early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3178 forum discussion].

=== Scenario 5B - Isle of the Damned ===
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leaders, or survive for 27 turns.

Konrad is washed overboard during a storm, but is rescued by two mermen. You start out with 100 gold and cannot recall any units. You are joined by Urlaf, a level 2 Outlaw. In addition to Mermen, you can recruit his friends: Thugs, Poachers and Footpads. This is the only time in the campaign that these units can be recruited, but any outlaw units surviving this scenario can be recalled later. Your gold from Bay of Pearls (minus the usual 20% discount) is saved for the next scenario.

Moremirmu is a White Mage with a holy sword which is very effective against undead. He is hiding in one of the three temples, and will join your cause if you find him. Beware: Xakae, a Revenant with a retinue of Walking Corpses, is waiting to ambush you in another temple. Moremirmu and Xakae are randomly placed; the third temple is always empty. Xakae and the Corpses can be a useful source of experience if you have the troops to deal with them.

Mermen can be used successfully to harass the undead in their rear. Typically the undead responds by withdrawing forces to deal with your mermen. Occasionally this tactic can be used to isolate and trap an undead leader while their forces are busy with your land troops. Don't expect the mermen to survive, though.

Moremirmu is critical to winning but also quite fragile. He will die quickly if he is attacked by multiple undead.

Early finish bonus for killing both enemy leaders. Moremirmu (and his holy sword) will join you in future scenarios only if both are defeated.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3179 forum discussion].

== Scenario 6 - The Siege of Elensefar ==
Scenario objectives: Kill both enemy leaders.

Konrad arrives at the southern end of a large map. The island city of Elensefar dominates the center, and the cave of the necromancer Muff Jaanal is far to the north. The orcish warlord Agadla has taken the city. You know what to do!

Your first objective is to retake the city. You could choose to charge across the bridges and fight your way onto the island, taking heavy casualties from the level 2 orcish warriors along the way - but casualties will probably be lower than if you do it the slow way. Or, you can lure the orcs into the water where they are easy to hit. Remember that mermen, especially the one with the Storm Trident, move quickly and defend quite well in water or on the bridges. Whichever strategy you choose, remember that the undead are well on their way to join the orcs occupying the city. Speed is a factor.

Konrad will receive some help from the Thieves Guild. Apparently, an orcish occupation is bad for business. They will either show you a hidden ford onto the island, or attack the north gate after you take one of the island villages. Whether you choose to storm the city, and which aid to accept, depends in large part on how much of a hurry you are in. Every turn, the undead march southward, and you'll have quite a fight on your hands after they reinforce the orcs in the city proper.

After you defeat the orcs, you must fight your way north. Fighting against the undead requires a different mix of units than fighting the orcs. Your mermen are too slow on land. Horsemen and elvish units do reduced damage to skeletons. Here, you need... mages. Lots and lots of mages. And a paladin, if you've leveled a unit that high enough. Expect to spend many turns fighting through the northernmost six hexes. You are fighting in a cave, which slows your units down. Being underground, it is also treated as night for the time of day penalties. Also, don't forget that mages can't take a lot of abuse, especially from melee attacks. You will have to figure out how to use your less effective elvish units and horsemen to shield your mages.

By now, you should have either Konrad or a level 2 elven fighter with the Leadership ability. A unit adjacent to a leader receives a +25% bonus to damage. Likewise, carefully position shamen or white mages in your lines so they can heal wounded units. Two adjacent healers will heal each other.

Early finish bonus for killing both enemy leaders.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3224 forum discussion].

== Scenario 7 - Crossroads ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the north-eastern enemy leader.

There are two strategies: either to "run for it", or "kill them all". Which you choose will probably depend on whether you want to earn lots of gold, or level up lots of units.

If you choose to run, recall two turn's worth of troops. Most should be level 2, but you should recruit one or two units as sacrifical lambs. Having two healers (who will stay adjacent to each other for mutual healing) is almost a necessity. Move the units in formation (probably in two packs) along the road. Do not be tempted to move units into the mountains. The increased defence is not worth the risk of triggering ambushes. Drive your way to the leader in the northwest, kill them, and reap the early finish bonus.

The second strategy is to methodically destroy all enemy units on the map. Recruit two turns worth of units, and then drive south. Overcome the southern leader, and recruit more troops in his castle. Move back north, moving into every town and through the mountains, in order to trigger ambushes. This strategy is trickier to pull off, but careful management of your kills should allow you to level multiple units. (Just be careful not to run out of turns...)

Note: The first two villages that on the screen that you will likely attempt to grab trigger an Elvish Fighter and Elvish Archer to join your party and warn you about the hills. Keep in mind that they, too, are Loyal troops.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3281 forum discussion].

== Scenario 8 - The Princess of Wesnoth ==
Scenario objectives: Subdue Li'sar to win

Konrad's life now takes an interesting turn, as he meets the Princess of Wesnoth, Li'sar. Instead of dying when you "kill" her, she surrenders.

Li'sar is supported by troops from the Loyalist faction. Even your tough level 2 units make tempting targets for her lawful horsemen; they will charge and probably kill them. Use terrain and position sacrificial level 1 screening units while the sun is high. Likewise, you can try for a quick kill by charging Li'sar with your own horsemen or knights.

This otherwise straightforward battle is enlivened by reinforcements that Li'sar summons on turns 5 and 10. Also, a level 2 Duelist will defend the Princess' honor when you approach her, appearing from the south of your position. You can trigger his arrival by exploring the mountain with an entrance. Capture the villages on the eastern side as you cross the river, and position units to cover the north-eastern plain to prevent Li'sar's mounted units from capturing these villages.

By the end of this scenario, you should have learned a painful lesson in how the computer player targets its attacks...

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3401 forum discussion].

== Scenario 9 - The Valley of Death ==
Scenario objectives: Survive 12 turns.

There are two holy water bottles on the map. The unit which picks them up will have their melee attacks be holy for the duration of this scenario. These are especially useful for powerful melee units like Elvish Heroes or Champions which otherwise do little damage to the undead. Or, you could recruit Horsemen and have them grab the holy water. They should easily level to level 2 Lancers or Knights, and maybe even to a Level 3 Paladin by the end of the scenario. As in previous scenarios, mages will be effective against most of the undead enemies.

You'll be facing many level-2 undead. They're all dangerous but two kinds require special attention:
* Spectres (level2 ghosts) are fast in every terrain, somewhat hard to hit, resistant to all common kinds of damage, and have a draining attack. Attacking them in melee is not recommendend, killing them with arrows will eventually work but takes many arrows. They are vulnerable to arcane spells and fireballs, though.
* Walking Corpses: they're slow, they're weak, they're fragile. Usually nothing to worry about, but this time they're many. Hordes. Night of the Living Dead. A strong fighter will easily slay them, but that can become his downfall: an attacking corpse that gets killed makes room for the next corpse to move in and attack... and the next, and the next, and each one gets a few blows. Even a Paladin or Champion will eventually be overwhelmed, taking like ten or fifteen zombies with him. Whether you consider this to be a good exchange is up to you. Incidentally, something similar can happen between Paladins and level-1 Skeletons.

The castle you start in is a well-defensible position, but all enemies arrive at about the same time. Once surrounded, you'll have very little wiggle room or inside tiles for your wounded units to retreat to. Filling the moat with Mermen might work a bit better, but their tridents won't impress the skeletons.

You should consider attacking the southern enemy, then hole up in his castle and the surrounding hills. This increases the distance to the others: their troops will reach you later and they will be strung out, so you don't have to fight them all at once.

If you don't have the money to recruit a large or powerful army, recruit a few Elvish Fighters and send them to the forest north of your castle. Their job is to slow the Revenant for several turns and then die gloriously. Flee with Konrad and the rest of your army to the south-east corner. If you're lucky, the WC horde will be too slow to reach you before the scenario ends. A cowardly tactic, yes -- but you'll survive...

If you played Isle of The Damned without killing both Liches, and Moremirmu survived, then he will reinforce you with three White Mage buddies between turns 7-10. You can't recall them after this scenario, so they are expendable.

Another strategy, which requires to have Moremirmu to help you and allows you to kill the three Liches, is to recruit 2 horsemen (or recall their leveled up units) and as many thieves as you can, send each horsemen to gather the bottles of holy water, and kill with them the northern and eastern Liches; don't send them the horseman to the northern Lich too quick, because if you do his army will focus on it, and it won't reach the Lich. Move Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, and your thieves towards the southeast corner. The thieves be used as a barrier to protect your more important units; place them in woods, mountains or villages(never in plains) as soon as they can, so that the northern and eastern Liches concentrate on them and leave Konrad and his group alone. With some luck you'll kill the northern and eastern Liches around the same turn that Moremirmu appears, and Konrad and his group will survive enough time to have one of Moremirmu's white mages kill the Southern Lich during day time.

Early finish bonus if you somehow manage to defeat all enemy leaders. If you do, feel free to boast about your accomplishment at the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3402 forum discussion].

== Scenario 10 - Gryphon Mountain ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

Konrad starts in the lower left corner of the map. General Robert, commanding Loyalist troops, is in the upper right. In the middle of the map, surrounded by mountains, is the Mother Gryphon and four sleeping Gryphons.

If you kill the Mother Gryphon before the Loyalists do, you will have access to gryphon eggs, allowing you to to recruit Gryphon Riders in future scenarios. Opinions differ as to whether their ability to capture far-flung villages, safely lure enemy troops, and ability to pierce the map shroud are worth their high cost. Even if you decide not to attack the Gryphons, the enemy will -- and then the wild beasts of the air might decide to attack you.

For a quick victory to earn the early finish bonus, head up the right side of the mountains. To earn experience, head towards the Mother Gryphon, and the enemy will come to you.

Early finish bonus for killing both the mother gryphon as well as the enemy leader.

== Scenario 11 - The Ford of Abez ==
Scenario objectives: Move Konrad to the north side of the river

The wide Abez river cuts across the middle of the map from left to right, with Konrad starting on the lower right side. Princess Li'sar starts on the lower left, and an orc band is on the north side of the river. Killing the Princess is meant to be impossible: she has plenty of troops as is, and if you actually get near her there will be numerous high-quality reinforcements. Do not even try to attack her, it will be a waste of good troops for no gain. Instead, fill the river with mermen: this is an excellent opportunity to get many of them leveled up.

But first things first: your task is to get Konrad across the river. The chaotic orcs will attack from the north, the Princess's lawful Loyalists will attack from the south, and... a new enemy (alignment: hungry) will be attacking from downstream. All will happily fight each other if they ever meet, but with your army standing right between them in the middle of the river... it will pretty much seem as if everyone was out to get you.

Remember those loyal mermen from in the Bay of Pearls? They should comprise your principal fighting force. Be sure to send one downstream to acquire the Storm Trident there. If you have some of the flying elvish units, they move and fight equally well over land or water. Wait for the Orcs and Humans to get into the water where the mermen have excellent defence while the landlubbers do not.

Even if you have the money, don't recruit for more than two turns, otherwise Konrad might not even make it into the river. The scenario ends as soon as he makes it to the other side (off the beach and onto flat ground) -- by the time he gets there, there will be few orcs left on that shore, Kalenz and Delfador can well deal with them. If you recruit any land troops at all (healers perhaps?), make sure they have at least two moves in shallow water.

This is an excellent opportunity to get your mermen some XP, and you don't really need the early finish bonus.

Early finish bonus for getting Konrad onto dry land.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8716 forum discussion]

== Scenario 12 - Northern Winter ==
*Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders (2 of them)
*Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
*Turns: 50 (as of 1.8.3 on medium difficulty turns = 40)
*Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, a random soldier
*Early finish bonus: 47 / turn
*Other:
**Snow falls on turns 6 and 10, making the tundra patches larger.
 
This is a relatively simple scenario. The enemy will mostly raise level-1 wolf riders and orcish archers, plus the occasional level-2 Ogre or Troll. You can field a similar mix of mostly fresh recruits plus a few veterans. Throughout the scenario, the wolves will attempt to seize villages, often bypassing your forces: a few Elvish Scouts behind your lines will come in handy. Alternatively, your loyal Thieves can play hide-and-seek just as well. Don't overrecruit, though: there's only so many units you can actually bring to bear on the enemy. You've got enough time to win this twice, so you may chose to take it slow and milk this battle for experience. You'll still end this with more than enough gold in your coffers.

== Scenario 13 - The Dwarven Doors ==
* Objectives: Move Konrad to entrance of the Dwarfen Kingdom
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 26 / 20 / 15
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, one experienced Rider, one outlaw unit (if you have any)

You may defeat all enemy leaders if you feel like it, but this won't end the scenario. The sole winning condition is to get Konrad to the entrance of the Dwarven Kingdom. Actually, there are two entrances: the "Great Gates", clearly labeled as such, and a less conspicious side entrance in the north-eastern corner. Only one of these is open, the other is blocked from the inside (determined at random).

You start the scenario with one rider who suggests to scout ahead: that's a good idea, even though you may chose another unit for the task (the game picks the most experienced). Anyone reaching an entrance will tell you whether it's open or not. Alternatively, if you played the Isle of the Damned, one of your outlaws will tell you about his uncle who used to have business with the dwarves, hiding in a village along the way (at 18/24, you'd probably seize it anyway). The uncle is a loyal bandit who joins your troops; he also tells you which entrance to chose, main gate or mine tunnels. It pays off to actually read that dialog.

The most minimalistic approach is to recruit one castle full of cavalry and RUN. The enemies have to cover some distance and cross difficult terrain in order to get in you way -- if Konrad starts running on turn one, he can move past them practically unopposed. It falls to the cavalry to bring up the rear: let them form a line somewhere near the Pillars of Thunedain while Konrad, Delfador and the other walkers keep going. Holding the line for a single turn is enough, then the riders may follow Konrad, leaving the pursuers behind and unable to catch up again (except for the wolves, but there shouldn't be many).

You can still follow this basic principle if you recruit for two turns, adding a healer or two and perhaps some Rangers (their ambushes will stop many opponents). If you recruit for more than two turns, this will become a rather normal battle: your rearguard can no longer disengage, but will have to keep on fighting. There's nothing wrong with that, you can gain quite some experience that way, just don't forget the actual objective.

Konrad needs to get into the mines. Scenario ends with early finish bonus as soon he does so.

== Scenario 14 - Plunging into the Darkness ==
* Objectives: Find the dwarves
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 19
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: n/a
* Other:
** Secret pasage in southeastern part of the tunnel
** A very short and straightforward map

In principle, this is quite simple. You cannot recruit and just have to walk down that corridor until you find the dwarves -- you can't possibly miss them. You will be attacked by a few bats. They may hurt, that's all. This is mostly a lesson: see how slow Kalenz is in the caves? Notice his abysmal terrain defense? Clearly, this is no place for elves.

Since you're reading this walkthrough, you'll also be interested in locating the secret passage leading to a chest of 200 gold pieces in the southwest. Just stick to the wall, step by step, and you'll eventually find it. However, said chest is guarded by a rather nasty spider: watch out! It's a level-3 beast that poisons and slows.

After you're done with the bats, you can just sit there and wait until your men are healed again. There is no turn limit, after all. Once you found the secret door, do not get in. Step back a bit and the spider will rush out where you can attack her three to one. You should be able to kill her in a single turn, don't worry about getting poisoned -- you won't die from poison and there are no other enemies left. However, if you fail to kill her quickly... you saved the game, didn't you?

== Scenario 15 - The Lost General ==
* Objectives: Kill all enemy leaders (there are two)
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 64(!)
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: Killing both enemy leaders

Moving underground is slow, especially for elves. Their fighters and archers are also ineffective against undead. Outriders and slyphs might be worth recalling, if you can afford them. Likewise, gryphons and horsemen are bogged down. Recruit dwarves for speed, and mages to back them up. (However, a Gryphon can pass the small pond quickly, and there are four towns on the other side.)

You are fighting Lionel, a former general turned Death Knight, who starts trapped in the south. To the west is the usual orc/troll force. In the north is a dwarven ally, although if you are too slow they will be overwhelmed by the orcs.

Dwarven fighters do well against the undead, while the Thunderers do best against the orcs and trolls. If you choose to go for money, rush troops both south and north, reinforcing the native dwarves and triggering the appearance of the undead. If you choose to go for experience, ignore the undead until you have killed the orcs, then return en masse to destroy the undead. Don't take too long, as Lionel will break forth on turn 20.

There are two ways to get to Lionel: an entrance opens in the pond on turn 19/20; and walls collapse when units move into tiles just south of the sign that says "Guest Quarters", regardless of when this happens.

Tip: If you make dwarf leader to survive (and actually reveal him), Dwarvish Guardsman will become available.

Note: If you recall/recruit a merman and send it to the pond, then have it go to the whirlpool, it will arrive in a hidden cavern with a friendly ulfserker. Once your merman returns to the whirlpool through the other end, it will carry the ulf with it.

== Scenario 16 - Hasty Alliance ==
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leader
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 33
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: Killing enemy leader + 200 Gold from Li'sar

Li'sar is about to attack, when you are surrounded by orcs and trolls. She joins forces with you to defeat the troll leader, bringing her Royal Guards and 500 gold worth of allied troops to the struggle.

Your greatest challenge will be to survive the first few turns, as the death of any of Konrad's companions will end the scenario.
Once you have defeated the first wave, it is relatively easy to finish off any remaining trolls and move north to the troll leader. Try and encourage your allies to go first and take the hefty damage from the Level 2 and Level 3 trolls, while your mages and dwarves get the experience for killing blows.

The way I did it was to recruit a keep of thieves (the cheapest unit) and move Delfador and Kalenz out of the way. Then my allies were able to send help over so that I could get 'real' units on my second turn without suffering casualties. One thief survived and I got a Rogue with 36/56 XP by the end of the scenario! -CountPenguin

== Scenario 17 - The Sceptre of Fire ==
* Objectives: Capture the Sceptre of Fire with Konrad or Li'sar
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 50
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: n/a
* Other:
** Gold gift from Li'sar: 300 on easy, 200 on medium, 100 on hard
** Milk this level for experience as there is no early finish bonus
** Randomly generated map

The map changes each time, so if you're save-scumming, be sure to checkpoint right after the scenario starts, and replay once you know where the Sceptre is.

There's three or four enemy leaders, depending on difficulty. The map is randomly generated; there's no telling how many villages there are and where... but more often than not, it's something like 25 villages and most will be placed where you can seize them early. The scenario certainly feels as if you're in for a major underground struggle, but the enemy leaders have little money to begin with and -usually- they won't have much of an income either.

Usually there's two large tunnels going north, and quite often you meet little resistance in one, and quite a lot in the other -- though the latter still doesn't qualify as tough. You can gain quite some XP in the contested tunnel, just form a shieldwall with (mostly) guardians, play it safe, and you can level up some 4-8 dwarves. It's a good idea to station Kalenz here, his faerie fire will help a lot against the occasional lvl-3 Troll.

Meanwhile, The Princess, Delfador, one healer and several of your better dwarves should move up the less contested corridor and scout the map. The Scepter usually is somewhere about 2/3rds up the map. You may encounter the occasional enemy... it's alright to buzz off in all directions, but make sure that everyone has a line of retreat and may receive support within a turn or two.

The scenario ends as soon as Konrad or the Princess gets to the scepter. You may delay this a bit in order to milk a few more XP, but there's not that many more to be gained by then. All things considered, it's better to let Li'sar have the scepter -- she'll be with you until the end, she has no ranged attack, and while Konrad will often be held back by recruiting, Li'sar can be in the frontline from turn one.

Note: When the earth rumbles, something actually happens. There are lava chasms in various places, and these grow when there is a rumble, so keep your units away.

== Scenario 18 - A Choice Must Be Made ==
* Objectives: Defeat either of the leaders
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 33
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: Kill either leader
* Other:
** Next level depends on killed leader
*** Northern orcish leader will get you to the ''Snow Plains'' and the Flaming Sword (15-4, magical)
*** Southern undead leader will get you to the ''Swamp Of Dread'' and a suit of armor (high resistance to blade, pierce, impact)
*** If you take a merman to the eastern side of the river, you get to the cliffs of Thoria, an insanely difficult battle where you can find a loyal Sergeant (may become a level-4 leader)
** Simply decide for one direction and block the bridge in the other direction unless you want to fight on two large fronts
** First real chance to level gryphons

Scenario objectives: Kill either leader.

Going south is the easiest way: the orcs coming from the north may only cross the river at the bridge, a chokepoint that's easy to block. In fact, a determined attack may defeat the undead before the bulk of the orcs even makes it to the bridge. Fighting the orcs in the hills will take longer while the undead can walk through deep water or fly over it, crossing the river wherever they like.

Going south will also the most prudent choice when considering the possible goodies: currently, Li'sar goes into battle wearing lingerie. While a magic sword or a loyal leader might come in handy, you don't need them as badly as the Princess needs a suit of armor.

The undead need to be dealt with even if you don't want to kill their leader. Delfador, Kalenz and Lisar all have undead-killing ranged attacks (you *did* give her the scepter, didn't you?) -- add two more mages (one of them a healer) and three dwarfish steelclads as bodyguards. Recruit those on turn one and move them to a position where they may receive the chocobones' attack by dusk. You need at least steelclads in order to survive their charge. However, after the chocobones are gone the remaining undead ought to be manageable even if you don't throw any more troops that way (though you may do so if you're after the undead and want this to be finished quickly). You may need a few turns' rest before you can tackle the Death Knight, but eventually your spellcasters should dispose of him quickly.

In order to hold back the orcs, a few elves plus a healer are enough to secure your end of the bridge; the orcs will be reluctant to attack even level-1 archers during the day, and if you employ more and better troops (like, level-3 loyalists in the woods and a few mermen in the water) the orcs may not even attack at night. There's not much experience to be gained that way, though. If you want to actually fight the orcs, you should get to the other side and meet them there. There's plenty of mountains, an excellent opportunity to get some more experience to your dwarves (you will have good use for high-level dwarves later on). Dwarves, Gryphons and Orcs all have high defense in the mountains, so fighting will be slow.

It will be a long walk to the northern leader even after you rubbed out his army. You might consider an assassination: send like 4-6 suicidal gryphons to his keep. Bonus points if you have a silver mage (teleport!). Of course, you can assassinate him without defeating his host first. just wait until his army is too far away to turn back and help him.

Talking about Gryphons... this is the first time that you can really use them. Gryphons alone won't really impress the orcs, not even when supported by leaders and healers (they're level-1 units, after all). They may however seize a few villages, harass and distract the enemy, track down wounded units and so on. You should certainly get a few.

They must have changed this scenario. As of v 1.9.5 at medium level it's absurdly easy. I recruited just one keep (two paladins, two mages of light, and two griffons). Then charged for the undead leader (South) and wiped him and his evil minions out by the end of turn 9. The griffons didn't even get in the fight. The orcs hadn't even reached the river bridge. ~ Sojourner, 4/16/11.

== Diverging campaign path ==
=== Scenario 19A - Snow Plains ===
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leader
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 43
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: Kill the leader
* Other:
** Li'sar will tell you she does not like her mother

Konrad will find the Flaming Sword (15-4 melee, fire, magical) hidden under the great tree in the northeast near the enemy keep. It will take Konrad a while to slog through the snow, forest, and hills, so you'll have to think about how many turns he will recall units. Dwarves will do well in the mountains, as will the flying gryphons.

Early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader.

=== Scenario 19B - Swamp Of Dread ===
Scenario objectives: Kill all enemy leaders.

There are lots of undead, but mostly level-1. The terrain is unfavorable, but hampers the undead as much as you.

The swamp is good terrain for your mermen. Those with attacks that hurt the undead (the ones with Storm Tridents, Netcasters, Healers...) can make quite a difference. However, be aware that the campaign is coming to an end and you'll have little use for mermen in the following battles. So while the mermen may well lend a hand, any experience they gain will effectively be wasted.

One of the Death Knights drops the Void Armor when killed. The unit that picks it up will gain high resistance to physical damage (blade, impact and pierce). Since Li'sar is very vulnerable to precisely those types of damage, you should probably give her the armor. Keep her in the center at first so she doesn't have to walk across the whole map if the armor appears at the other end.

Some of the Liches' power seems to be tied to the death knights; killing all four will hurt the Lich for about half its hitpoints.

Early finish bonus for killing all 5 enemy leaders.

=== Scenario 19C - The Cliffs of Thoria ===
Scenario Objective: Make it to the end of the river

Turns: 45

Defeat:
* Death of Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar, or Kalenz
* Turns run out

Early Finish Bonus: 40% gold carryover

Starting Units:
* Konrad
* Delfador
* Li'sar
* Kalenz
* Your strongest merman

After a little spat between Kalenz and the merman you use to go east, you'll head for the Cliffs of Thoria. You'll find a long water level full of derelict vessels of the Queen. You'll also meet a Drake. After some conversation you discover that the Queens' forces attacked the Drakes, and now the Drakes will stop you from going forward. Since you have to move forward, you'll have to fight them.

There are a number of small islands on this map with Drake bases. Each base will produce one Drake every turn until one of your units occupies the base. This means that although the drakes may run out of money, they will never run out of reinforcements. In order to win this, you need to kill them faster than they spawn new recruits. No easy task.

Further, if you find that you can't win in a direct assault and want to bypass the drakes by going through the swamps, you'll discover very powerful undead enemies guarding the shoreline. They won't move, but any casualty will be immediately replaced by a new unit. Clearly, that area is cursed. Just avoid the dark blue water. It's impossible to get into the swamps, any attempt will be a waste of time.

Tip: Compared to the other two choices, this map is insanely hard. While there is an opportunity to pick up a wonderful loyal unit, you may wish to skip the challenge unless you have at least 800 gold and a sufficient number of leveled-up mermen.

If you're going to insist on playing this map, hire many gryphons and merfolk and move as fast as you can and just take the heavy losses. Since each base creates a unit every turn, to destroy a base you have to kill the unit occupying it and immediately move onto the base in that turn. Since merfolk can't move onto mountains, you'll need gryphons for that. Getting the first two or three bases quickly is absolutely vital.

With a somewhat longer perspective, spend all your money as long as you have it: you will inevitably run out of funds during this scenario. Drakes are vulnerable to piercing and arcane damage, so elvish arrows can be useful, as can your healers as spellcasters. Don't get too many landlubbers though, most of the fighting will happen in or over the water. Level-1 mermen will either die quickly or level up; high-level mermen will wreak havoc on the drakes. However, you need a good many level-2 mermen to begin with. Rookies alone cannot maintain the constant pressure you need, and the turn limit is short enough as it is.

When you finally make it to the far side, you'll be told that the waterfall is impassable: you need Konrad to enter the cave in the middle of the map. Start walking early, he'll take a while.

A loyal leader can be found on the most south-western island. He's badly hurt, keeping him alive may be tricky... better to discover him only on he very last moment.

== Scenario 20 - Home of the North Elves ==
* Objectives:
* Konrad must reach the forest kingdom of Emetria
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 21
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: 47 Gold per turn
* Other:
** Your base will be dismantled after the first turn

This is a very large map with some interesting challenges. First, Konrad needs to move all the way across to the right side, and if you're playing on Medium or Hard, you don't have many turns to waste. Second, Fog of War is turned on, so you won't know where the enemy is until you blunder into them.

However, even in the fog you can see the terrain, including the enemy keeps. The orcs start in the north central part of the map, while the humans begin in the southeast. What you can't see are the large hosts of level-3 units standing near their respective camps: these are the armies, and *they will not move* unless someone walks into their striking range. Getting at an enemy leader will be difficult indeed, but if you're content with moving past the armies you'll only have to cope with the level-2 vanguards seeking each other.

You start with all loyal units who can move six or more hexes per turn (provided you kept them alive) and can recruit one castle full of more troops; it's probably best to get only riders, be they human, elf or gryphon. Most of them should be level-2. If you want to bring a healer, get the fastest on your roster (a quick elvish flyer, perhaps?) and make sure it's spawned at the right side of your keep.

There is some dialogue to remind you that the winning condition is to a) move Konrad into the forest and b) keep Li'sar, Delfador and Kalenz alive; everyone else is "not important". During the game, some elvish riders will show up and happily demonstrate how sacrificing a single unit can keep many others safe; they do it so well that you probably don't need to sacrifice any units of your own, but now you know how it works.

The dialogue makes you expect a large battle between humans and orcs, but noone tells you that the elves (they have a keep in the woods) will also recruit a large force and attack anyone in sight; you'll probably see your first human warriors much later than you'd expect and find that they're busy enough fighting the elves. So you only really have to deal with the orcs; once you're confident that they can't get at Konrad anymore, he can move on pretty much on his own. Your troops may turn around and fight the remaining orcs, or join the elves and steal a few kills there, or whatever. Have Konrad stop short of the forest to give your troops more time for fighting if you feel like it.

Delfador will tell you when Konrad enters the domain of the elves, but the scenario won't end then: you need to finish your turn and let everyone else have one last chance to attack your troops. If Konrad is still alive at the beginning of your next turn, you've won.

Early finish bonus: 47/turn

== Scenario 21 - The Elven Council ==
This is a cut-scene furthering the storyline. No combat takes place.

== Scenario 22 - Return to Wesnoth ==
Scenario objectives: Kill all three enemy leaders.

Three Halbardiers appear as enemy reinforcements in the lower southeastern corner of the map when you slay the nearest general, Josephus. The bridge across the river is a good place to establish a defensive position, since attackers have to use the beach and water hexes to attack. Use the forests to your advantage: elven troops are best in forest, while the loyalists and orcs are seriously slowed by the trees.

Early finish bonus for killing all enemy leaders: 27 Gold

== Scenario 23 - Test of the Clans ==
* Objectives: Defeat either all four leaders or 25 units in total
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 53
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: 55 Gold per turn

This is a large map against mostly Knights, Horsemen and Bowmen. The map is mostly open plains which is ideal for horse-bound units. The easiest way to win the scenario is to keep all your units in one group and take them en mass to the enemy. Fast and powerful units like Grand Knights, Lancers or Paladins are important. Units with pierce attacks (Archers, Shydes, Knights) will do good damage to Knights.

Expect heavy losses from the charge attacks, but don't fret because this is the second-to-last scenario. You'll want to finish this scenario quickly to get a nice bonus for the next level.

When any of the enemy leaders is killed, it is replaced with one or two knights (two or three in Hard). Reportedly, one way to win is to gang up on Bayar with fast units while attacking the south-eastern leader with the rest of your army.

If you want to have a long field battle, you can put groups of dwarves or elves in the hills. The enemy will tend to attack the hills, thus giving you some advantage. Hills also make a good safe haven for healing your mounted units. Try to kill the south-eastern leader early so you don't have to divert so many of your resources to the south flank.

If you want to kill all the clan leaders before killing 25 units (which finishes the scenario), recruit a castle of healers, then recruit a good force of Gryphon Riders. Grab as many villages as is safe, and then position your Gryphons on the deep water in the lake. The next castleful of recruits is your main army and two more Gryphon rides. March this south, take out the south-east leader and then send the two Gryphons to the group in the lake.

As soon as the majority of the northwest leader's troops move away from him, assassinate him with your Gryphons. He should die in 1-2 rounds of attacks assuming you don't lose too many of your troops. In the south-east, recruit a couple of castles worth of Gryphon Riders and send them west to take on the Southwest (black) leader, all the while keeping your main force just out of range of attackers if at all possible. As your Gryphons cross the river on the offensive, the AI usually moves troops back in to defend with. You should be able to out-run these. Converge all the Gryphons you have left on the middle leader (purple). I won around turn 25 giving me around 1600 gold to start the last scenario.

== Scenario 24 - The Battle for Wesnoth ==
* Objectives: Defeat Asheviere
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 60
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar, as many Grand Knights as you defeated in the last map
* Early finish bonus: 46
Scenario objectives: Defeat Asheviere and, by killing her, reclaim the throne.

One good strategy for this scenario is to set up camp around your fort and let the enemy come to you. You'll want to make sure the units on your front line can survive the beating they receive for one turn, and then you rotate them with freshly healed units. Don't attack the attackers if it means your unit won't have enough hit points to survive the next thrashing. Three or four healers will be needed behind the lines, and keep them fully occupied (remember that healers will heap 8HP to every unit adjacent to them. They're like walking sets of 6 villages).

For front-line units, level one Dwarvish Guardsman are excellent; they'll take a good beating but not lose too many hit points because of their steadfast attribute. Because they don't lose many HP, they'll also heal quickly. Only attack the enemy if no hit points will be lost. Guardsmen can throw a spear at the attacker on every turn if the attacker has no ranged attack.

Other units that are good for the front line are any unit with more than 50HP. Elvish Marshals will make your Dwarvish Guardsmen even more awesome. Dwarvish Lords have an incredible 79HP and can dish it out back to the enemy. Unfortunately, after a good thrashing, these units will take a long time to heal back up because of the large number of HP lost.

If you have any Assassins, rotate them up and down the line poisoning each enemy unit. The enemies have very few villages available to them, so with three Assassins you can poison half the army until the enemies have a bunch of level three units walking around with 1HP each.

Once the enemy has no army left, you can just wander up to Asheviere and discuss her resignation over a cup of hot tea. Asheviere has exactly 48 HP, so three hits of a 16-damage weapon, like the Scepter, or four 12-damage hits, is enough for the kill. Or you could surround her with about 20 Elvish Shamans and get the last little bit of fun juice out of this game.

A quick assassination can even be performed by Master Gryphons or even sometimes Gryphon Riders: you can recruit a castle of them on turn 1, send them south, elude enemy forces sent by the general in the futile attempt to catch you, then approach Asheviere for the kill (she will not have many troops at her own protection). Using this strategy, I won on turn 6 (and without losses). Swarming all four enemies with 6 new knights each turn is a very effective distraction strategy. Asheviere may divert about half of her force to destory the Gryphons. If this happens, congratulations. This means you've won. You should have still about 20 living Knights, and you should easily break through her lines.

A good bonus from The Test of the Clans should be enough to win this scenario.

One extraordinarily hilarious way to win this battle is through mass recruiting of Knights, which is quite possibly the only level Two unit you can ever recruit in the mainline campaigns. With roughly 1500 Gold from the plains battle, you can recall every single unit of level two or higher before recruiting loads of Knights to massacre the enemy with suicidal attacks. As long as you keep your heroes alive... It'll be a very bloody, but short, win.

== Scenario 25 - Epilogue ==

[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]][[Category:Campaigns - Heir to the Throne]]

TheEasternInvasion

2010-12-25T17:59:33Z

Sojourner7: /* The Drowned Plains */

This is a discussion of The Eastern Invasion, the campaign featuring Gweddry General of Wesnoth.

''This walkthrough has been updated by Maiklas3000 to reflect changes up to version 1.8.3 on hard and previously by Crus4a7E for up to version 1.4.5 on medium. Feel free to add your own updates.''

'''Warning: spoilers ahead!'''

This is a campaign where you may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios Captured, Evacuation and Weldyn Under Attack in order to plan ahead.

=== The Outpost ===

The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage (who should not be expected to survive.) Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.

Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.

Also, around turn 12 the white mage returns and points out a trap door you should use. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16).

Position your leader near the trap door, so he can reach it in one turn. As it is almost impossible to finish with more than 100 gold (which is the minimum starting gold of the next level), use the remaining turns to level as many units as possible and only move your leader onto the trap door in the very last turn.

Using this strategy, you may be able to finish with a couple of shock troopers, as well as adding experience to your other units.

On challenging, this scenario is quite, hmm, challenging. These tactics can succeed, but alternatively you can try purchasing a couple of calvary to use as a diversionary force, capturing enemy villages and running away, taunting and distracting the enemy.

=== Escape Tunnel ===
* Objectives: Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel
* Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out
* Turns: 26/24/22 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn
* Other
** Permanent holy amulet in north
** Treasure of 200 gold in southeast

Don't bother recalling Heavy Infantry, as they go too slow in caves. Go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. (One keep of units in total should easily be enough.)

The map is quite small. Bypass the fights that you can until you have the bulk of your units in the safety of the dwarf leader's keep area. When you are just moving Gweddry along, be opportunistic and get some experience. Move your units to the east until you encounter trolls and reach a crossroads. A couple of dwarves will kindly become your allies and keep off the trolls for a few turns.

There is a holy amulet to the north (and unlike in other campaigns this holy amulet is permanent!). Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the River Crossing, where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle. Note that the leader is very hard to kill anyway.

As soon as you have got the holy amulet start to move all your units south without bothering about the trolls or the undead, which appear after a number of turns from the direction of your keep.

The undead, trolls and dwarves will all fight each other, so after having moved all your units south position one Spearman at the end of the cave leading south (so only one unit a turn can attack him) and position the White Mage right behind him to heal it every turn. These two units should easily keep of the enemies following you until the end of the scenario. Move Gweddry to the northeast accompanied by a Mage and a Spearman (to fight individual trolls coming your way).

Before moving Gweddry to the end of the cave (which ends the level) send the Mage to the east past the funny signpost warning you of the troll hole. In the cave the Mage discovers a chest containing a troll treasure amounting to 200 gold.

[Thrash: Alternately, I used predominately Heavy Infantry on this level. I found (on medium) they were tough enough to hold the central cave and pretty much beat the trolls into submission long enough for Gweddry to run north to the the amulet and then cover his retreat south, only then recruiting a mage when the troll numbers were lower. With other units, I had problems with the trolls overrunning them and getting Gweddry trapped to the north. Also a heavy infantry in the village by your starting fort will hold off the undead for a long time.]

=== An Unexpected Appearance ===
* Objectives: Defeat either enemy leader
* Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out
* Turns: 20/20/20 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn
* Other: your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat

What you do in this scenario depends on which way you want to go. Going east is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a free Paladin and several Knights.

First kill Mal-Tar to get your keep. To do this, shoot him with Dacyn and attack him with Gweddry's melee. If you don't kill him the first turn, second turn kill him with Dacyn so Gweddry can recruit. You will be fighting a mix of undead and bats, so recruit Heavy Infantry and Mages (if you gave the amulet to a Spearman in the previous scenario, recall him, too). Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village. Don't worry, he can fend for himself, since the bats usually arrive one at a time and he can kill one per turn.

On easy or medium (or hard going west), the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units. If you move quickly you should only need to fight the attackers from one leader. Of course you can have some of your units double back to engage the second set.

===Diverging Campaign Path===
==== Elven Alliance ====

The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure.

Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.

Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.

There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.
The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.

Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears on turn 7, ignore it unless you have a cavalryman still down there. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.

==== The Undead Border Patrol ====

This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The enemy is relatively weak. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance - recruit 2 suicide cavalrymen to distract the bats. One will probably get enough XP to be worth recalling.

I would use mostly heavy infantry and spearmen with the holy amulet on this level, because mages will only get a +10% to hit from magical. However, as in most scenarios against undead, white mages are very useful.

Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand. This gives you something like a 70% CTH. >)

(CTH = Chance To Hit).

If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process.

===== Mal-Ravanal's Capital =====

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

This is a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in postion to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him, he teleported my troops back to the starting castle, so I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to The Northern Outpost.

The reason to go here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin and five Knights. To do this kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages, but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.

If you just want to rescue the paladin and 5 knights and get out (in 1.6), this is how I finished that by turn 8. The horses were captive in 6 cages, 4 in a northern loop and 2 in a southern loop. First turn, I sent a quick shock trooper, quick heavy, and a white mage (not Dacyn) around the northern loop, looping from bottom to top (start at bottom knight, end at paladin). I looped that way to clear the middle ASAP and escape the oncoming troops. Also first turn, I sent 3 shock troopers around the southern loop, looping from top to bottom. If you encounter resistance, kill it quick or run as required, and instead focus on killing the guards fast, which conveniently don't hit back. On turn 2, I recruited another keep full of recruits and immediately sent everyone else to take out the northwestern leader. Time it so you kill the northwestern leader just as the last horses are rescued. It is by no means easy, but this way I managed to lose only a few HI types while picking up all 6 horses.

[elvish_sovereign] (1.8.2 Normal) An alternate strategy for the above if you have more leveled mages than leveled HI's. It also requires that you gave the Holy Amulet to Gweddry. I sent a single quick Shock Trooper due south (recruited on the southern-most hex on the starting castle), which promptly took out the southern Revenant on turn 3. Forget about the villages, it'll only delay you. I sent Dacyn due north, a quick RM go take out the second from the bottom Revenant, and a quick HI and a WM with Gweddry to take out the middle-couple Revenants. I also recruited two HI's to stop the advance and distract the two Dark Sorcerers' troops. After Gweddry and the WM take out the third from the bottom Revenant, send that Knight south. After taking out the Revenant with the RM, send the RM, Shock Trooper, and the three Knights in the direction of the SW Dark Sorcerer. Meanwhile, Gweddry, the WM, and the HI take out the third from the top Revenant, and then get Gweddry the hell outta there with the WM. have Dacyn free the Paladin first, then have the remaining Knights, HI, and the Paladin take out the remaining Revenant and hold out in the north. As Gweddry is fleeing and th e final Revenants are being felled, break through the SW Dark Sorcerer's lines (which should be easy if you distracted them properly) with the RM and the Shock Trooper, and send the three Knights to knock him into oblivion. I finished on turn 8 with no losses, but had some near-death moments.

[Thrash] My take on justing getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East. Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.

=== The Northern Outpost ===

This scenario is reachable both from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' and the ''Elven Alliance'' scenarios.

Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. You will create a separate task force for each.

The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn has gone AWOL for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the southwest.

By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., calvary and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, position as many healthy units as you can immediately around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the eastern side of the map flagging one village a turn and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.

Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse.

When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.

Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.

Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assasination).

/* governor */ Just a note: I had the misfortune of taking a group of men to a village where 5or6 enemies appeared. After taking heavy damage, I retreated my char (low on hitpoints) out of the village. When I recaptured the village the same group of enemies reappeared. Since AI enemies seem to prefer recapturing villages this can allow you to obtain easy experience for weak units a few times.

[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.

=== Two Paths ===
This is a fairly tough level (played in V 1.4.5 on medium difficulty) which took several attempts to get through. In V 1.4.5 you have 16 turns (unlike 12 as in earlier versions) and can choose between going north to attack the orc leader or going north-west to attack the undead leader.

One option is going north on the very east side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.

Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the north-west in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the north-west to reach the undead leader before turns run out.

On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal calvary charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.

It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be a easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).

=== Diverging Campaign Path===
==== Undead Crossing ====
Spoiler ahead... this scenario has a surprise that will be explained below.

Recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible northwest through the swamp towards the eastern crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall calvary. The calvary should run as fast as possible along the southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the western crossing. You can divert a couple of calvary and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the eastern assault.

Now for the surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not your biggest challenge, as the undead leader summons two or three cuttlefish, which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on the same turn number. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack. You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your calvary across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.

==== The Crossing ====

I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight north from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the north. The un-dead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the north side. (Allefant)

If you have Holy Gweddry, you can (sometimes) get a 1st turn kill on the 1st undead leader, scarf up all the villages, and return to kill the 2nd undead forces before their leader can recruit anything. If you don't, the second undead leader will recruit lots of level two units. The orcs will start out across the river, but usually most of them turn back to fight the ogre reinforcements. Waiting till their first wave hits your shore and wiping them out in the water will probably leave you just enough time to cross the river and find there are only 2 or 3 enemy units left besides the leaders.

[Thrash] I don't think the above is realistic in 1.8.3. The leader is a Revenant with 47HP, both Gweddry (lvl 2) and Oweac (lvl 1) together would have to hit 100% to dish that out in one turn. He does come out to grab a village though, and Dacyn can make short work of him on turn 2.

Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.

Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way. Knights and a Paladin can hold off the orcs enough to get across while the undead behind you are not an issue.

Note: Owaec can move only one hex a turn in the water.

Important: If the ogre leader is alive at the end of the scenario, he agrees to help you, which results in the following bonuses: he joins you as a loyal unit, you get two free Ogres, you gain the ability to recruit Young Ogres, and you skip "Training the Ogres" scenario and go directly to "Xenophobia".
(shadowblack)

[Thrash] I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him. Sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the orcs south to solve this problem.

=== Training the Ogres ===

*This scenario was missing in 1.6.

This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recruit young ogres later, you need a couple of the ogres to not reach the rocky borders where they will "escape", whereby they seem to disappear into thin air. You have a couple of options for accomplishing this. Option 1 is to run. To keep ogres in the area, you wind up running in a circle, probably with Gweddry. However, running in a circle, Gweddry cannot outrun ogres and he will not survive repeated attacks from multiple ogres. Therefore, you need some of the ogres to "escape", which you can arrange by having Gweddry run close to the rocky border. Option 2 is to fight and kill some of the ogres, but this is hazardous. Or you could try a combination of these options.

Being able to recruit young ogres allows you to promote them to ogres, which do middling damage, but unfortunately can't advance beyond level 2. Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the later scenario ''Lake Vrug'') and in caves (in the scenario ''Captured''). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario ''Weldyn Under Attack''). Perhaps less obvious is that even young ogres are quite useful. Given their low, low price of 15 gold, they make good spam, attracting attention from the enemy and soaking up a lot of damage before they die.

=== Xenophobia ===

This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming aliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units, pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the north, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep), and train ogres (see below).

You have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.

Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.

Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves, plus the mountains make good ogre training grounds. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.

In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Calvary, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.

Strongly consider recruiting three or four young ogres as well. Use the young ogres on the mountains in the north (and west) to hunt down any stray dwarves (and elves) whilst levelling up to ogres.

(Future spoiler: This is your last chance to level non-leader units you will play two scenarios ahead in Captured. For instance, you may want to prepare a dragoon, a white mage, and a couple of adult ogres for that scenario.)

=== Lake Vrug ===
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders. To spare you the frustration, here is a spoiler...

Spoiler: there are three enemy keeps, all north of the river. One is to the very northeast (go to the right into the mounts directly after crossing the bridge), one is between the path leading west and the river bank just before the path turns northwards, and one is in the very north at the end of the path. The orc leader resides in the first keep, the gryphon leader in the second, and the third is empty.

Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and recall as many ogres as possible, supplemented by young ogres. (Most of the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily.) You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead.

Apart from finding the keeps, the main challenge in this scenario is surviving the first onslaught of gryphons, which starts around turn 4 with quite a number of gryphons appearing from the northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first gryphon swoop out of the fog, ''panic!'' Generally where there is one gryphon, there are more gryphons. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres and young ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.

Just when you thought you had the gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away.

Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in the end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.

=== Captured ===

Gweddry starts out on autopilot, running up a tunnel to find some of his companions. These companions will consist of Dacyn, Oweac and, from your recall list, one Red Mage, Longbowman, Master Bowman, Arch Mage, Silver Mage, or Great Mage, plus one Swordsman, Pikeman, Javelineer, Royal Guard, or Halberdier. If you don't have any of those units, Gweddry, Dacyn and Oweac will be on their own and facing a tough challenge.

Do not send this group back the way he came, or you will have to face some extremely mean trolls in the narrow tunnel. Instead, follow the tunnel to the north and west. You will face a few bats as you proceed. At the end of that tunnel, you will enter a throne room where you will find an enemy leader and his troops. Don't panic; the leader doesn't recruit and the troops are pretty sedate. Beware that a troll can ambush you out of the shroud, though.

Meanwhile, when any of your units first enters the throne room, the resulting ruckus causes a group of your captured troops to plot an escape. Already wounded, they appear in a cavern called the "Torture Room" to the east. These troops will face a number of assassins as they leave the Torture Room moving west. Try to get through the prison "door" of the torture room quickly; otherwise, the enemy units have an easy time keeping your entire army locked away using just a single unit blocking the door. To get through the entrance quickly, you need to have your troops back away, allowing the guard to come in so that you can get multiple attacks on him to kill him. Any ogres you have will come in handy to rush out and prevent other assassins from blocking the entrance.

[Thrash] From looking at the WML I believe the captured troops will consist of the 13 highest level troops from your recall list. You are well served by making sure you've got some Ogres, Mages of Light and others who do well in caves in that list.

Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the southwest corner. There is quite a comfortable early finish bonus, so you might want to move him there quickly, because - believe me when I say - you're going to need every gold piece for the next scenario. You should also quickly flag the numerous villages in a cavern called "The City", a cavern southwest of the Torture Room, where you will be confronted by a troll and other enemy units. If you have a silver mage, remember that the silver mage can teleport back and forth between the Throne Room and The City, as needed. With these things in mind, it should be possible to finish with over 500 gold on medium or 300 gold on hard.

There is a holy necklace on this level in the City, at coordinates x=22, y=38. Preferably grab it with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is.)

Note: Most of the orcs are level two and three units.

=== Evacuation ===
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible", but it is by no means impossible, even on hard, given adequate gold. However, you must wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: it may be necessary to accept heavy losses of high level troops. On the other hand, some players with strong rosters after going to Mal-Ravanal's Capital have beat this scenario on medium with minimal losses.

Note: You should have over 400 gold and a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario. The scenario is doable with 300 gold even on hard, but will result in even higher casualties.

There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the south. In the former case, you could suffer quite some casualties in fighting the enemy. In the latter case, all your units that are not on the south side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your nonrecalled units! Whichever option you take, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the level 2 trolls, as they can (and frequently will) instantly kill almost any of your units. Best fight them with two white mages or a white mage accompanied by some other unit.

Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your nonrecalled troops. First, recruit two to three keeps full of your typical experienced troops like iron maulers, white mages, and so on. If you went Mal-Ravanal's Capital and so have a lot of knights, recall them too. Ogres are also helpful, if you have some left, as they are strong and you will have no use for them in later scenarios (except maybe ''Weldyn Under Attack''). After that, for cannon fodder, recall a keep full of young ogres and calvary.

Start to move your units south and attack the central enemy right away (i.e., do not wait until you have recruited all units). Split the second batch of recalls, sending half of them to the northeast and the other half to the southwest (otherwise you might not make it to all three leaders in time). Finally, send some young ogres and calvary to the northeast and southwest to distract the enemies there for two or three turns.

With all three groups of your units try to focus on attacking the enemy leaders as soon as possible, so you do not run out of time. With a bit of luck and probably some nasty casualties, you will have killed all three leaders around turns 10 to 12.

The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially on hard or with less than 400 gold. Your opening move will be to start running the engineer, Dacyn, and Owaec to the southwest. Then recall a keep of cannon fodder: young ogres, ogres, and calvary. Send them in all directions to distract the enemy. On subsequent turns, recall the troops that you want to try to save, putting slower ones at the head of the line. However, non-quick shock troopers and iron maulers are so slow that they should be sacrificed in rear guard action. Focus on running the engineer, using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable. Use combat sparingly, just where you need to open a hole or where you see an opportunity to level up and heal.

If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, even on hard, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for levelling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Under Attack'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.

=== The Drowned Plains ===
The Skeletal Dragon will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the south). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.

The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units (preferrably impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there).

Note: On at least version 1.8.3, the Skeletal Dragon is buggy. It comes to you in the northeast early on and sits in your keep. [Thrash] I saw this behavior as well, the dragon just camped and didn't even attack, just sat there. I also found him far from the castle, not too far from where I started. Same problem observed in 1.8.5. Mages magic attacks very effective against the dragon. Since there's a good early finish bonus, just recruit a keep of high mages/paladins/etc, surround and kill the dragon and reap the reward. [Sojourner].

=== Approaching Weldyn ===
The objective is to "get Gweddry to Weldyn", which means that Gweddry has to reach one of the seven castle hexes. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.

There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.

=== The Council ===

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

=== Weldyn Under Attack ===
*Objectives: Survive until end of turns
*Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, or Konrad II dies
*Turns: 18/18/18 (easy/medium/hard)
*Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Konrad II, engineer

Brace yourself. This is the most difficult scenario of the campaign to this point. You already survived one scenario that many have found impossible, namely ''Evacuation'', so you can survive this one too. Rest assured, the scenario is winnable on hard with ~500 gold even without very many high level troops.

At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are three enemy leaders with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits nightgaunts, the southeastern enemy leader is the only one that recruits bats, and the northern leader is the only one that recruits Spectres. It stays nighttime (first and second watch) during most of the scenario, which is painful with the damage the undead will unleash.

Your strategy should be to kill off one of the leaders and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the northern keep.

The backbone of your army will be heavy infantry track units, mages, and mages of light. On the first turn, recall one of each, plus three calvary units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the calvary to backstab your allies, robbing them of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the calvary can run around to distract the enemy. Send your heavy infantry types, mages, and mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: arch mages, silver mages, white mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios. Pad out your force with ogre / young ogre spam. As ogres are neutral, their attacks won't suffer in the near-permanent darkness, and they are useful on the hills to protect your flanks.

You probably will not be able to assassinate the leader before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.

After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your calvary. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now. Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two leaders. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, young ogres, calvary, and/or silver mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.

For your main force, unless you have taken over the southwestern keep, you need to think about the invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.

In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a shock trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a general up to lend leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.

If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two, travelling along the board edges to attack the remaining two leaders. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to Weldyn Besieged.

Hint: If you have one or two silver mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking.

At the end of the scenario, an enemy messenger appears telling you that you have only fought some delegates of the ancient lich Mal-Ravenal. It challenges you to have a duel with Mal-Ravenal instead of letting the armies meet for a final battle. If you accept the challenge, you get to scenario ''The Duel''. Otherwise you go to ''Weldyn Besieged''. [Thrash: In my opinion Weldyn Besieged is much tougher and you probably only want to go that route if you have a decent carry-over.]

===Diverging Campaign Path===
==== The Duel ====
* Objectives: Defeat Mal-Ravanal
* Lose if: Gweddry dies
* Turns: infinite
* Starting units: Gweddry
* Other
** Maximum six recruits/recalls for you.
** Starting gold is 200.

This is a somewhat strange scenario: you and Mal-Ravanal get to recall/recruit exactly six units each and then have to fight each other. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite managable.

Recall mostly mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Set them up in a line of 4 units backed up by 2 units at the edge of your starting stockade. "Cowardly" Gweddry should stand in the back up line so he does not accidentaly get killed.

Then wait for Mal-Ravanal's troops to reach you, but try to be the first to attack (which may require a step or two backwards and then advancing again.) Try to finish them off quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6.

Mal-Ravanal stays holed up in a little tunnel until your forces come near, when he will pop out and attack one of your units.

Spoiler: After killing Mal-Ravanal the campaign ends with a final scene of Gweddry and his companions being honoured by the king.

==== Weldyn Besieged ====

On versions prior to 1.5.6 the siege is laughably easy to break; just recall a keep full of your best troops and rush Mal-Ravanal in the south.

As of 1.5.6 this battle should prove a more substantial challenge. Now the liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario. Sending fast scouts to attack all the liches is not advisable since each lich receives a boost of gold for another round of recruitment after its name is revealed.

A workable strategy is to recall a group of cavalry with holy amulets and paladins to circle behind the undead horde and terminate the liches. You can draw the liches out of their keeps by positioning a sacrificial horseman within their attack radius. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the lich off in a single turn.

Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.

[Thrash: I had no success with the strategy of sending out a group of cavalry as I needed all hands on deck to defend the keep. What I found to be the key to winning was to make sure you get good hard first attacks on the approaching undead, starting with the ones from the south on turn 3 and then others on turn 4.]

[[Category:Campaigns]]

HeirToTheThrone

2010-09-08T04:17:07Z

Sojourner7: EFB of 17 with Ver 1.8.4

This is a walkthrough of '''Heir to the Throne''', the campaign featuring Konrad. It contains spoilers.

The suggestions herein are based on the "Medium" and "Hard" difficulty levels. It should be possible to win the "Easy" difficulty level without trying very hard if you are an accomplished gamer. If you feel comfortable with turn-based games, especially ones featuring units moving on a hex map, then you can play the Tutorial and then dive right into "Medium" to get a feel for the elements of the game. After you have played a few scenarios and are ready to restart from the beginning (and yes, it is very likely you will have to restart the first time you play Wesnoth), try reading [[AdvancedTactics]]. You should also be familiar with the basics in [[WesnothManual]] -- this is a walkthrough, not an exposition of basic game mechanics.

Each scenario has an individual forum thread where you can provide feedback to the authors. See also the forum posts [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3601 Suggestions for Heir to the Throne walkthrough] and [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4026 Yet another "Heir to the Throne" walktrough] (sic) for more. [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7064 Ye Compleat Walkthrough To "Heir To The Throne"] is a detailed guide, with illustrations, to the first several scenarios.

Finally, some [http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/my-wesnoth-replays-online replays] were posted by Uwe Hermann.

'''Warning spoilers ahead!'''

== Scenario 1 - The Elves Besieged ==
Scenario objectives: Both Konrad and Delfador must survive, and Konrad must escape to the signpost in the northwest corner of the map.

The orcs as well as your allies will levy a great many troops, you'll soon find yourself between the lines in a huge battle. All those units slugging it out can take quite some time, you may want to try two options on the Preferences dialog, "Accelerated Speed" or maybe even "Skip AI Moves".

This scenario is a "runner" scenario; on turn one, recruit a castle full of fresh recruits, and immediately make a break for it! If you're new to Wesnoth, getting Konrad out of there in one piece will be difficult enough and may require you to start over a couple of times. Hint: don't keep your units all lumped around Konrad, as a large host will attract the enemies' attention.

Terrain dictates two routes to the signpost: west to the druid and then north, or north over the bridge and then west. Either way, you should send Delfador and most of your army straight north. This is a ruse, the sole purpose is to lure the enemy towards the road while Konrad (with only one or two level-1 bodyguards) makes his way towards the exit. There's no chance of winning, your troops should perform a skirmishing retreat westwards into the forest.

Other than getting Konrad on his way, the inofficial objective of this scenario is to gain some experience for your troops. Experience is gained by fighting; once a level of experience is reached, your units will "level up" and become more powerful units. Killing an opponent will give much more experience than just fighting, so you should try to arrange it in such a way that the unit you want to upgrade gets to deliver the coup de grace.

Now a few words about the units at your disposal. In-game, you cannot check the data of unknown units; if you want to take a peek anyway, check the [http://www.wesnoth.org/units/ Wesnoth Unit Tree].

* Fighters and Archers. Melee and ranged, all elvish warriors are capable of both, it's more a matter of emphasis than an actual distinction. When they level up, most should become Heroes and Rangers, repectively; you'll only need one or two Captains, and probably are better off without any Marksmen: spellcasters will serve the same purpose much better.

* Shamans are minor healers. As a rule of thumb, you should never enter into any scenario without at least one healer. Leveling up a Shaman is somewhat tricky, as they can do only very little damage. However, it's well worth the hassle. Druids will be standard healers, you want one (and possibly only one) of those as soon as possible. A Sorceress cannot heal at all, but is a powerful spellcaster. At their higest level, both will learn to fly and become very mobile.

* Scouts may seem weak, but there's more to them than meets the eye. While most riders suffer severe penalties in difficult terrain, the elvish variant can cross rivers, swamps and even mountains rather quickly and will usually even receive a reasonable defense modifier. Insofar, they're less like horsemen and more like fast infantry. Whether you employ them in numbers is a matter of taste, however, you should always remember that you have these extremely mobile units at your disposal.

* Konrad, your leader, starts most scenarios at a keep where he may recruit some troops, but that doesn't mean that he should stay there forever: Being always on the map, he may just as well make himself useful. Getting him to level two will earn him a crossbow as well as the "leadership" ability, both will come in handy time and again.

* Delfador, the Elder Mage, is insanely powerful (at least compared to your other troops for the time being). Mages usually aren't very sturdy, but at level 5 he has so many hit points that you don't have to worry too much about him – he'll survive quite a few counterattacks. Don't overcommit him, but the first few scenarios depend on his abilities to instantly slay nearly any opponent and soaking up some damage that would otherwise kill several of your (still minor) units.

Remember to use the CTRL-v command to see how far all enemy units will be able to move on their next turn. Click on an unoccupied hex and then move the cursor over an enemy unit to see how far that unit will be able to move. Be careful with your heroes and constantly think of their safety.

Early finish bonus: 32 gold per turn.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2881 forum discussion].

== Scenario 2 - Blackwater Port ==
Scenario objectives: Survive 12 turns (9 on Hard), or kill the enemy leader.

The opening dialog will introduce a new friend, Haldiel, a loyal Horseman. The importance of loyalty is explained in [http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/CampaignStrategies#The_importance_of_loyalty Campaign Strategies].

'''Horsemen'''
:Now that's cavalry as we know it. Their charges can be truly devastating if somewhat suicidal, as your ally will demonstrate soon. Employing charge attacks takes a little getting used to, as it differs so much from ordinary melee. Keep an eye on the "Damage Calculations" until you get the knack of it. 

Back to topic: If you recall units, choose those that have enough experience to be worth the 2 to 6 gold difference over fresh recruits, or who have specific traits that you need. Hole up in the forest on your side of the road (so the enemy has to stand on the plains to face you). Feel free to seize a few villages from your ally, he won't complain. If you have a unit to spare, you may even take the villages next his castle. Matter of fact, this is a prudent move – after all, Sir Kaylan would only use the gold to recruit troops that would steal your experience!

You can also send Haldiel west as fast as possible and attempt to take the village due south of the enemy castle. This will draw some orcs south, reducing the pressure on your actual army and giving you more freedom to shape the battle. However, be careful to not let him get pinned down and killed.

The first night will be tough, be prepared to lose some units; but if you use the terrain to your advantage, you should have enough of an army left to launch a serious counterattack during the next day. The momentum should keep you going even through the next night and you may soon find yourself besieging the enemy keep. However, the actual objective is merely to survive – if everything fails, you may still retreat behind the swordsmen guarding Sir Kaylans fortress.

There is an early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader, however, it will probably be small. In other words: rushing it won't be worthwhile, instead you should play it safe: manoeuver carefully and try to get some experience to those units that need it most. By the end of this scenario, you really ought to have a Druid – that's absolutely vital. Next in line should be an elvish Fighter (make him a Captain) and Konrad, anything else is optional. But the more the merrier as they say.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2929 forum discussion].

== Scenario 3 - Isle of Alduin ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

The key to victory is to control the villages, earning the gold you need to recruit or recall troops. You have the option to send the majority of your army west or south with village grabbers going the opposite direction. If you choose to send your army west (recommended) send a scout and an archer south, grabbing alternating villages. Done intelligently they will each grab 1 village per turn until they are near the opponents keep. Be careful of engaging the enemy on the west flank near the hills at night: this is where they shine. Back off to the forests and wait for a more favorable time of day if necessary.

The following strategy works well if you take care of your unit placement. Protect units you cannot afford to lose from multiple attacks at night or when weakened, particularly new horsemen and magi.

First recall or recruit 3 elvish scouts. Send two scouts to the southern villages, and the third to the village to the northwest. Recruit 3 fighters; send one to the south and the other two to the southwest. This works best if one scout is "quick" and the fighter recruited to fill the southeastern hex of your castle is also "quick". If not you may have to modify this strategy. Send Delfador up to the northwest on the first turn to find the mage and send the mage down to the village next to the castle. Konrad should take two nearby villages in the first two turns, because you have no money left anyway.

One of the scouts goes as far south as possible, taking villages and distracting the enemy. This scout is usually destroyed by turn 4. That's OK. The other scout in the south usually has to retreat to survive. You try to take all the villages in the south you can and then reinforce the south slowly and move south. Now your main push is in the west because most villages are there and you need an income of over 20 per turn to recall all of your good troops. I usually use the scout I have sent to the northwest village on the island to take all of the far northwest villages. Delfador can destroy an enemy unit each turn, especially saurians, because these pesky units can kill weakened units in the rear. Horsemen take too long to cross the forest south of your castle but are strong on the western plains during daytime. Send newly-recruited horsemen to the west along with magi. A shaman is useful to the south and later one can be sent to the west.

Approaching turn 10-12, you should have assembled two reasonably powerful forces on each side of the lake. The westerly one usually is based on Delfador and horsemen-mage combos with fighters and archers for ZOC purposes, and the eastern force almost entirely of elves. Remember magi work best against trolls and grunts, and horsemen against archers.

Move south in tight groups, trying not to get too aggressive at night with the west group, until they meet at the far southern end of the island, and assault the castle together.

If you are a new player, you've probably been focusing on game mechanics and how the units and terrain interact. If so, it's time to give serious thought to leveling up some units by allowing them to strike the killing blow. When Konrad or an elven fighter is at level 2, they get the "leadership" skill. When a shaman levels up, they get the "cure" skill.

Hardly any player notices this, but this scenario offers the opportunity for some extra experience at the expense of very little gold. The early finish bonus is 38, but there are 36 villages on the island, so if you control all villages, you only lose 2 gold per turn (or only 1.6 gold, since only 80% can be retained - should be less than 24, since you hardly ever finish more than 15 turns early). So instead of killing the remaining enemies - especially the enemy leader - you might encircle them and reduce their health to a minimum. If you do not attack them in the subsequent turns, they will neither attack nor move, thus regain 2 HP per turn and will eventually be healthy enough to stand an attack of your weaker units. This is a relatively safe way to milk some extra XPs out of them for your weaker units (preferably magi and shamans). While milking level 1 units may not be very rewarding, milking the level 2 leader might easily give 20 extra XPs.

A note about playing with Magi: They are weak units, but become important later in the game. Over the next few levels, you'll want to level at least two Magi to White Magi for later in the game; they have an arcane (or holy) attack which does incredible amounts of damage to the undead. Fire Magi can eventually level up to level 4 Great Magi, which are walking killing machines, and Fire Magi do decent damage to most other units, especially trolls and skeletons. Magi are weak, however, so they need to be guarded by stronger units. Don't let the enemy have more than one attack position on them.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2959 forum discussion].

== Scenario 4 - Bay of Pearls ==
Scenario objectives: Kill one or both enemy leaders.

You must fight the sea leader, a sea orc, bats, and nagas with the mermen. It will be nigh impossible for your horsemen and elves to wade to the island to fight the sea leader in time, so try to preserve your mermen for this. Mermen and nagas both have high defense in water, so combat can be a bit slow and frustrating. Concentrate three or four mermen on a single enemy unit at a time, rather than spreading your attacks piecemeal.

On the first turn, have Konrad recruit or recall some units. Which units, and in which order, is your first tactical decision. If you recruit/recall in pairs, with one fast (6 movement points or more) and one slow unit, then one will be able to move onto the island the next turn, while the other is still wading through the river.

Then, move Konrad to the cage on the island just to the east. This will free some mermen. (How many depends on whether you are playing on Easy, Medium, or Hard.) One of these can go open the second cage, and so on. There is another cage to the northeast, and one far to the north.

Even further north is the Storm Trident, which can only be picked up by one of your mermen. This ranged attack will be crucial in defeating the sea leader, so go north with enough mermen to defeat the Nagas guarding eh northern cae (on hard this probably means all of them). If you win the sea battle, you can use the mermen in one of two ways. You can harass or even assassinate the land orc leader (expect losses), you can attempt to lure the land orcs into the water.

On land, you have to fight off a wave of orcs and trolls heading south and then west. Your decision is how far west to engage the enemy. Consider carefully the time of day! You are hindered by the limited recruitment you can do each turn, and how long it takes your elves and horsemen to trickle across the river. You may need tor retreat at dusk.

Careful management of your killing blows should allow several units to get to Level 2. A charging horseman does so much damage it will be easy for the horsemen to get all the kills, but try to get at least Konrad, a shaman, the merman with the trident, and an elven fighter leveled up.

The outcome of this battle affects the next scenario you play. If you kill the sea leader you wind up on Isle of the Damned. If you kill the land leader you wind up on Muff Malal's Peninsula. If you kill both, you can choose. You fight undead either way.

New players should take the land route to Muff Malal's Peninsula, where you can easily level up your existing units or collect an early finish bonus. Experienced players or those who are looking for an interesting tactical exercise may wish to consider the sea route to the Isle of the Damned: you can't recall any of your previous units (except mermen), but you can recruit outlaw-type humans and perhaps recruit a loyal White Mage for future scenarios. Note that this is the only opportunity to do so in the entire campaign.

Tip: Overall, I got more mileage from elves compared to the outlaws you can recruit in the brief window of opportunity provided by the Isle of the Damned scenario. However, the White Mage you can pick up there is a godsend, plus you can give your mermen some much-needed experience by harassing the undead through hit-and-run attacks from all around the island.

Early finish bonus for killing both enemy leaders, and the ability to choose the next scenario.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3022 forum discussion].

== Diverging campaign path ==
=== Scenario 5A - Muff Malal's Peninsula ===
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

This is an easy scenario, and your aim here should be to build up your gold by controlling most villages, while earning experience against enemy forces. The enemy recruits bats to capture villages, and hordes of Walking Corpses to keep you busy. The occasional Dark Adept can be dangerous on Hard difficulty, but is vulnerable to melee attack, especially from knights.

One approach is to recall a few level 2 units supported by a mage. These units build a defensive position in the central part of the map, using hills and forest for cover, and hold off the first wave of Walking Corpses. Mounted troops capture villages in the north and west, and can charge down the flanks at daytime. A merman or two distract enemy bats and capture sea villages. If you can recall the merman that picked up the trident in Bay of Pearls, it will be able to dispatch bats easily on its own.

During daytime, your main force advances to one of the villages in the south-east, where you wait for more Walking Corpses to attack. A level 2 melee unit (eg. Elvish Captain) can use the village defense bonus to survive attacks, and heal between turns. By the time it is low on hit points, it should be advancing to level 3.

You should now control most villages and have some gold, so recruit or recall additional troops. Launch an offensive with your central force, supported by your horsemen advancing at the sides. Don't forget to use Konrad in the attack.

Try to attack with human units only at day, when the undead are at their weakest, and hold the lines with your elves at night.

Early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3178 forum discussion].

=== Scenario 5B - Isle of the Damned ===
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leaders, or survive for 27 turns.

Konrad is washed overboard during a storm, but is rescued by two mermen. You start out with 100 gold and cannot recall any units. You are joined by Urlaf, a level 2 Outlaw. In addition to Mermen, you can recruit his friends: Thugs, Poachers and Footpads. This is the only time in the campaign that these units can be recruited, but any outlaw units surviving this scenario can be recalled later. Your gold from Bay of Pearls (minus the usual 20% discount) is saved for the next scenario.

Moremirmu is a White Mage with a holy sword which is very effective against undead. He is hiding in one of the three temples, and will join your cause if you find him. Beware: Xakae, a Revenant with a retinue of Walking Corpses, is waiting to ambush you in another temple. Moremirmu and Xakae are randomly placed; the third temple is always empty. Xakae and the Corpses can be a useful source of experience if you have the troops to deal with them.

Mermen can be used successfully to harass the undead in their rear. Typically the undead responds by withdrawing forces to deal with your mermen. Occasionally this tactic can be used to isolate and trap an undead leader while their forces are busy with your land troops. Don't expect the mermen to survive, though.

Moremirmu is critical to winning but also quite fragile. He will die quickly if he is attacked by multiple undead.

Early finish bonus for killing both enemy leaders. Moremirmu (and his holy sword) will join you in future scenarios only if both are defeated.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3179 forum discussion].

== Scenario 6 - The Siege of Elensefar ==
Scenario objectives: Kill both enemy leaders.

Konrad arrives at the southern end of a large map. The island city of Elensefar dominates the center, and the cave of the necromancer Muff Jaanal is far to the north. The orcish warlord Agadla has taken the city. You know what to do!

Your first objective is to retake the city. You could choose to charge across the bridges and fight your way onto the island, taking heavy casualties from the level 2 orcish warriors along the way - but casualties will probably be lower than if you do it the slow way. Or, you can lure the orcs into the water where they are easy to hit. Remember that mermen, especially the one with the Storm Trident, move quickly and defend quite well in water or on the bridges.

Konrad will recieve some help from the Thieves Guild. Apparently, an orcish occupation is bad for business. They will either show you a hidden ford onto the island, or attack the north gate after you take one of the island villages. Whether you choose to storm the city, and which aid to accept, depends in large part on how much of a hurry you are in. Every turn, the undead march southward, and you'll have quite a fight on your hands after they reinforce the orcs in the city proper.

After you defeat the orcs, you must fight your way north. Fighting against the undead requires a different mix of units than fighting the orcs. Your mermen are too slow on land. Horsemen and elvish units do reduced damage to skeletons. Here, you need... mages. Lots and lots of mages. And a paladin, if you've leveled a unit that high enough. Expect to spend many turns fighting through the northernmost six hexes. You are fighting in a cave, which slows your units down. Being underground, it is also treated as night for the time of day penalties.

By now, you should have either Konrad or a level 2 elven fighter with the Leadership ability. A unit adjacent to a leader receives a +25% bonus to damage. Likewise, carefully position shamen or white mages in your lines so they can heal wounded units. Two adjacent healers will heal each other.

Early finish bonus for killing both enemy leaders.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3224 forum discussion].

== Scenario 7 - Crossroads ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the north-eastern enemy leader.

There are two strategies: either to "run for it", or "kill them all". Which you choose will probably depend on whether you want to earn lots of gold, or level up lots of units.

If you choose to run, recall two turn's worth of troops. Most should be level 2, but you should recruit one or two units as sacrifical lambs. Having two healers (who will stay adjacent to each other for mutual healing) is almost a necessity. Move the units in formation (probably in two packs) along the road. Do not be tempted to move units into the mountains. The increased defence is not worth the risk of triggering ambushes. Drive your way to the leader in the northwest, kill them, and reap the early finish bonus.

The second strategy is to methodically destroy all enemy units on the map. Recruit two turns worth of units, and then drive south. Overcome the southern leader, and recruit more troops in his castle. Move back north, moving into every town and through the mountains, in order to trigger ambushes. This strategy is trickier to pull off, but careful management of your kills should allow you to level multiple units. (Just be careful not to run out of turns...)

Note: The first two villages that on the screen that you will likely attempt to grab trigger an Elvish Fighter and Elvish Archer to join your party and warn you about the hills. Keep in mind that they, too, are Loyal troops.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3281 forum discussion].

== Scenario 8 - The Princess of Wesnoth ==
Scenario objectives: Subdue Li'sar to win

Konrad's life now takes an interesting turn, as he meets the Princess of Wesnoth, Li'sar. Instead of dying when you "kill" her, she surrenders.

Li'sar is supported by troops from the Loyalist faction. Even your tough level 2 units make tempting targets for her lawful horsemen; they will charge and probably kill them. Use terrain and position sacrificial level 1 screening units while the sun is high. Likewise, you can try for a quick kill by charging Li'sar with your own horsemen or knights.

This otherwise straightforward battle is enlivened by reinforcements that Li'sar summons on turns 5 and 10. Also, a level 2 Duelist will defend the Princess' honor when you approach her, appearing from the south of your position. You can trigger his arrival by exploring the mountain with an entrance. Capture the villages on the eastern side as you cross the river, and position units to cover the north-eastern plain to prevent Li'sar's mounted units from capturing these villages.

By the end of this scenario, you should have learned a painful lesson in how the computer player targets its attacks...

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3401 forum discussion].

== Scenario 9 - The Valley of Death ==
Scenario objectives: Survive 12 turns.

There are two holy water bottles on the map. The unit which picks them up will have their melee attacks be holy for the duration of this scenario. These are especially useful for powerful melee units like Elvish Heroes or Champions which otherwise do little damage to the undead. Or, you could recruit Horsemen and have them grab the holy water. They should easily level to level 2 Lancers or Knights, and maybe even to a Level 3 Paladin by the end of the scenario. As in previous scenarios, mages will be effective against most of the undead enemies.

One strategy is recruit a large army, defeat one of the enemies, and hole up in that enemy's castle. The southern enemy is popular for this strategy. It apparently also works to pack the lake around the starting castle with mermen, and hole up there. Don't underestimate the power of the Walking Corpses (WCs) recruited by the eastern necromancer. They are slow but there are so many that they can overwhelm and kill even your most powerful units if given the chance. On the other hand, do not underestimate the crowd-clearing ability of a Paladin or blessed Champion! A WC will lurch next to your unit. It will attack. It will die, leaving room for another WC to lurch forward.
(Windscion: Unfortunately, this is also a good way to get a high level unit killed: 10 WCs in one turn can be deadly. I prefer a line of archers backed by healers.)

If you don't have the money to recruit a large or powerful army, recruit a few Elvish Fighters and send them to the forest north of your castle. Their job is to slow the Revenant for several turns and then die gloriously. Flee with Konrad and the rest of your army to the south-east corner. If you're lucky, the WC horde will be too slow to reach you before the scenario ends. A cowardly tactic, yes -- but you'll survive...

If you played Isle of The Damned without killing both Liches, and Moremirmu survived, then he will reinforce you with three White Mage buddies between turns 7-10. You can't recall them after this scenario, so they are expendable.

Another strategy, which requires to have Moremirmu to help you and allows you to kill the three Liches, is to recruit 2 horsemen(or recall their leveled up units) and as many thieves as you can, send each horsemen to gather the bottles of holy water, and kill with them the northern and eastern Liches; don't send them the horseman to the northern Lich too quick, because if you do his army will focus on it, and it won't reach the Lich. Move Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, and your thieves towards the southeast corner. The thieves be used as a barrier to protect your more important units; place them in woods, mountains or villages(never in plains) as soon as they can, so that the northern and eastern Liches concentrate on them and leave Konrad and his group alone. With some luck you'll kill the northern and eastern Liches around the same turn that Moremirmu appears, and Konrad and his group will survive enough time to have one of Moremirmu's white mages kill the Southern Lich during day time.

Early finish bonus if you somehow manage to defeat all enemy leaders. If you do, feel free to boast about your accomplishment at the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3402 forum discussion].

== Scenario 10 - Gryphon Mountain ==
Scenario objectives: Kill the enemy leader.

Konrad starts in the lower left corner of the map. General Robert, commanding Loyalist troops, is in the upper right. In the middle of the map, surrounded by mountains, is the Mother Gryphon and three sleeping Gryphons.

If you kill the Mother Gryphon before the Loyalists do, you will have access to gryphon eggs, allowing you to to recruit Gryphon Riders in future scenarios. Opinions differ as to whether their ability to capture far-flung villages, safely lure enemy troops, and ability to pierce the map shroud are worth their high cost. Even if you decide not to attack the Gryphons, the enemy will -- and then the wild beasts of the air might decide to attack you.

For a quick victory to earn the early finish bonus, head up the right side of the mountains. To earn experience, head towards the Mother Gryphon, and the enemy will come to you.

Early finish bonus for killing both the mother gryphon as well as the enemy leader.

== Scenario 11 - The Ford of Abez ==
Scenario objectives: Move Konrad to the north side of the river

The wide Abez river cuts across the middle of the map from left to right, with Konrad starting on the lower right side. Princess Li'sar starts on the lower left, and an orc band is on the north side of the river. If you have lots of gold, if you have a plethora of well-seasoned fighting troops, and you think you're ready for a challenge, you could try and attack the Princess. But do a save first; you'll need it after you are wiped out by her Royal Guards.

Your major decision (after you learn that the Princess's escort is just too tough) is whether to have Konrad recruit for one turn or two. Do not recruit land troops with less than five movement points, as they will have trouble wading across the ford. You're under immense time pressure. The chaotic orcs will attack from the north, the Princess's lawful Loyalists will attack from the south, and... a new enemy (alignment: hungry) will be attacking from downstream. Except for the hungry ones--who will be focused on killing anything in their path--all the enemies will be focused on killing Konrad. The hungry enemies might assist you somewhat as they will probably hit the orcs and humans before trying to snack on your forces. Also, the orcs and humans will fight if they happen to cross paths.

Remember those loyal mermen from in the Bay of Pearls? They should comprise your principal fighting force. Be sure to send one downstream to acquire the Storm Trident there. If you have some of the flying elvish units, they fight equally well over land or water. Lure the orcs into the water, where your mermen have excellent defence and the orcs are highly vulnerable. If you captured the eggs last scenario, consider using a gryphon to distract the enemy.(Note in the latest version Gryphons are not available until a later scenario)

Early finish bonus for getting Konrad onto dry land.

See also the [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8716 forum discussion]

== Scenario 12 - Northern Winter ==
*Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders (2 of them)
*Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
*Turns: 50 (as of 1.8.3 on medium difficulty turns = 40)
*Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, a random soldier
*Early finish bonus: ?? 
*Other:
**Snow falls on turns 6 and 10, making the tundra patches larger.
 
This is a relatively simple scenario. The quickest strategy is to recall a few Knights, Lancers, Paladins, and/or Grand Knights along with fresh Horsemen, kill the northwestern leader, then head east. The eastern leader's wolf riders will attempt to attack you through the center of the map, so be sure to place a few horsemen there. It's a good idea for Kalenz and Delfador to defend the southern mountains, as a few riders may come there as well. This is a good level for getting a large amount of gold.

== Scenario 13 - The Dwarven Doors ==
* Objectives: Move Konrad to entrance of the Dwarfen Kingdom
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 26
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Blidd, Kalenz, level 1 thug
* Early finish bonus: Find the correct entrance (the eastern one -- or the main one in version 1.3.4)

This scenario offers the usual strategic choice -- run for the exit and an early finish bonus, or slowly and carefully exterminate the enemy forces. If you choose to follow Delfador's advice and flee in terror, recruit one turn's worth of elven riders or gryphons to sacrifice as screening units. If you choose to attack, you'll be in for a struggle. For a real challenge, move to the middle of the map and get attacked from all sides... If you want to kill all three leaders, taking out the south eastern one with your full force and then splitting to take on both the others. Move Konrad near the exit (the eastern one!) so you can abort at any time. -- [v.1.3.4: moving directly to the eastern entrance does not work; it is blocked]

The main door by the lake is barred from the inside. Further, there is the usual tentacular horror hiding in the lake near the ancient subterranean Dwarven Kingdom. This means you will have to go into the entrance on the east.

If you fought on the Isle of the Damned, one of your outlaws will tell you about a Bandit who will be willing to ally with you. The initial outlaw is expendable, the other one is loyal, though (no upkeep cost!)

"coward" strategy for version 1.3.4 :
In this version, you get a elvish scout, who says he'll check the entrance to see if it is opened. Send him there, passing on the right of the mountains that are along the "path" to the entrance. This will stop the north western orcs from killing him too soon. Once that is done, move the scout to the north western mountains, to lure the enemies there.
Recruit one turn worth of elvish scouts as sacrificial units. They'll lure the enemies away from Konrad. For a higher chance of success, leave Delfador and Kalenz near your keep, in the south. Since Kalenz is weak, he can easily be killed before Konrad makes it to the cave entrance. Once Konrad is near the center of the map (and overwhelmed by orcs), move them North a bit, to attract enemies to them. All you need to do now is move Konrad to the entrance as fast as possible. The cuttlefish should appear in the lake as you pass by it, which will delay the orcs some more.

Do It Quickly:
On the first turn recruit some units you may want to give experience to (and you're not afraid of losing them too), but choose only those having movement range 6 or greater. Then capture two nearest villages with Konrad and Delfador. Run straight north. The elf scout should be the leader to the doors and the only step off the straight path is to capture the village NE of the lake. This should unleash the octopus which will attract NW troops (not sure, tried only once)
Eastern and western opponents are lazy and more attracted to the villages income than to fight. So they will first go south to capture villages near your keep. Before they do, you'll be at the middle of the map.
If you recruited units with movement 6 and headed N without any stop, you're likely to be engaged at the pillars by some units from NW. Delfador and other leaders should have no problem dealing with them. Next attack may happen at the doors, one turn before Konrad reaches the entrance.
I managed to do it, losing only one 1st level mage.

Version 1.2.5:
I played on medium and found that I had only 20 turns. Killing all the orc leaders didn't end the game. You will still need to reach the door with Konrad. After reloading, I killed all the orc leaders AND managed to get Konrad to the door within 20 turns (20 exactly) but there was no bonus and I ended up with -ve gold because I had to recall all my veterans to kill the leaders. Finally, I adopted the coward's strategy. Created 5 Elvish scouts and 10 thieves and used them as canon fodder for the orcs. There were too many orcs and only 2 of the scouts survived but I ended up with 11 rounds of bonus.

Version 1.6.4:

On medium difficulty, I was able to defeat two out of the three leaders, and reach the door with Conrad by recruiting archers & horsemen, and then taking the western Orc keep. Then, i recruited one keep more of horsemen, and pushed forward. I was able to get Konrad to the exit by turn eighteen, and ended up defeating the northern Orc leader and most of the easter leader's troops, but I ended up with -ve gold. I was left with 1 horseman with 18/35 experience, four lancers, and two rangers i didn't have before.

== Scenario 14 - Plunging into the Darkness ==
* Objectives: Find the dwarves
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 19
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: n/a
* Other:
** Secret pasage in southeastern part of the tunnel
** A very short and straightforward map

Since you're reading this walkthrough, you'll also be interested in locating the secret passage leading to a chest of 200 gold pieces in the southwest. However, said chest is guarded by a rather nasty poison-biting, slow-web-throwing level 3 spider. Beware the blood bats, seek out a niche in the wall, and be wary exploring the secret passage!

Tip: After this map, Gryphon Riders will finally be available for recruiting - provided you killed the Mother Gryphon during the Gryphon Mountain scenario previously.

Tip: For the next three stages you don't have to use too many dwarven companions. All I needed was 2 fighters, 2 riders, 2 guardmen,and 2 thunderers. These fighters I use over and over leading them to all level up to level 3 and having lots of gold by the time I finish the cave levels.

== Scenario 15 - The Lost General ==
* Objectives: Kill all enemy leaders (there are two)
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out
* Turns: 64(!)
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: Killing both enemy leaders

Moving underground is slow, especially for elves. Their fighters and archers are also ineffective against undead. Outriders and slyphs might be worth recruiting, if you can afford them. Likewise, gryphons and horsemen are bogged down. Recruit dwarves for speed, and mages to back them up. (However, a Gryphon can pass the small pond quickly, and there are four towns on the other side.)

You are fighting Lionel, a former general turned Death Knight, who starts trapped in the south. To the west is the usual orc/troll force. In the north is a dwarven ally, although if you are too slow they will be overwhelmed by the orcs.

Dwarven fighters do well against the undead, while the Thunderers do best against the orcs and trolls. If you choose to go for money, rush troops both south and north, reinforcing the native dwarves and triggering the appearance of the undead. If you choose to go for experience, ignore the undead until you have killed the orcs, then return en masse to destroy the undead. Don't take too long, as Lionel will break forth on turn 20.

There are two ways to get to Lionel: an entrance opens in the pond on turn 19/20; and walls collapse when units move into tiles just south of the sign that says "Guest Quarters", regardless of when this happens.

Tip: If you make dwarf leader to survive (and actually reveal him), Dwarvish Guardsman will become available.

== Scenario 16 - Hasty Alliance ==
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leader
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 33
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
* Early finish bonus: Killing enemy leader + 200 Gold from Li'sar

Li'sar is about to attack, when you are surrounded by orcs and trolls. She joins forces with you to defeat the troll leader, bringing her Royal Guards and 500 gold worth of allied troops to the struggle.

Your greatest challenge will be to survive the first few turns, as the death of any of Konrad's companions will end the scenario.
Once you have defeated the first wave, it is relatively easy to finish off any remaining trolls and move north to the troll leader. Try and encourage your allies to go first and take the hefty damage from the Level 2 and Level 3 trolls, while your mages and dwarves get the experience for killing blows.

The way I did it was to recruit a keep of thieves (the cheapest unit) and move Delfador and Kalenz out of the way. Then my allies were able to send help over so that I could get 'real' units on my second turn without suffering casualties. One thief survived and I got a Rogue with 36/56 XP by the end of the scenario! -CountPenguin

== Scenario 17 - The Sceptre of Fire ==
* Objectives: Capture the Sceptre of Fire with Konrad or Li'sar
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 50
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: n/a
* Other:
** Gold gift from Li'sar: 300 on easy, 200 on medium, 100 on hard
** Milk this level for experience as there is no early finish bonus
** Randomly generated map

The map changes each time, so if you're save-scumming, be sure to checkpoint right after the scenario starts, and replay once you know where the scepter is.

Give Li'sar the Sceptre as it gives her a ranged attack. In a later scenario another artifact (melee weapon) will be available, although it may be given to any unit. Since it replaces the unit's melee attack, it may be better to give that to Konrad since his melee attack is not as powerful as Li'sar's.

No early finish bonus, so if you have the gold, this is a good place to level up. If you do, poise the character who is going to pick up the Sceptre right next to it, then send everybody else up to attack. Since there is a large time limit, milk every unit you can for maximum experience. And remember, Dwarvish Lords came in very handy later on.

Note: in version 1.2.4 there is an early finish bonus.(for easy mode at least) It is still a good place (and idea) to level up.

Tip: There is an early finish bonus for I had beat this stage within thirty turns and that had gave me a bonus of 37 gold per turn which multiplied to 185.

Tip: As of 9/10 (version 1.8.4) playing at Easy level, early finish bonus of 17. By the time the Scepter was reached most mobs already dead anyway, so not much opportunity for further leveling.

== Scenario 18 - A Choice Must Be Made ==
* Objectives: Defeat either of the leaders
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 33
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: Kill either leader
* Other:
** Next level depends on killed leader
*** Northern orcish leader will get you to the ''Snow Plains'' and the Flaming Sword
*** Southern undead leader will get you to the ''Swamp Of Dread'' and give you the chance to get lots of gold
*** There's a third option. If you take a mermen to the eastern side of the river, you will be asked if you want to go through the river instead
** Simply decide for one direction and block the bridge in the other direction unless you want to fight on two large fronts
** First real chance to level gryphons

Scenario objectives: Kill either leader.

You must choose whether to go north, south or east (with a mermen). A Death Knight and the undead lie to the south, guarding the way to the Swamp of Dread. This path is easier, as the undead are hampered by the swampy terrain even more than you. To the north are the usual orc horde, fighting in the hills, a tougher battle. Your choice between these two will affect which magic artifact you can get in the next level. Northwards are the Snow Plains, where a magic weapon awaits; south is the Undead Swamp, where one of your units can obtain better armor. The east alternative takess you to a difficult scenario, so you could prefer to avoid that option.

Whether you go north or south, recruit a few level 1 units as sacrifices, or use fast-moving gryphons to delay the other force.

Tip: if you plan to go south, you do not need to defend the bridges: a strong attack will defeat the undead before the orcs cross the river.

Tip: if you plan to head south against the undead leader, you can use your mermen - there are large tracts of swampy terrain for them to travel around in.

Tip: in case you choose the mermen choice, you might want to attack south in the meanwhile to give them time to get to the eastern side of the map.

Tip: gryphon riders make excellent diversions if you need to draw the enemy's attention away, especially if you are headed north and need something to slow down the undead chasing you from the south. Fly a gryphon rider or two southwest and make village-stealing forays east towards the undead castle. A couple of faster undead (e.g. chocobones) will usually move far away enough to catch up to your main army, but the remaining units should be temporarily distracted by the gryphons and waste a few turns turning back to go after them. This should free the bulk of your forces to deal with the orcs in the hills.

Tip: If you choose to move a merman to the east, you will be given the option of whether or not you actually want to take this path. You can decline and choose either north or south

== Diverging campaign path ==
=== Scenario 19A - Snow Plains ===
* Objectives: Defeat the enemy leader
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 43
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: Kill the leader
* Other:
** Li'sar will tell you she does not like her mother

Konrad will find the Flaming Sword (15-4 melee, fire, magical) hidden under the great tree in the northeast near the enemy keep. It will take Konrad a while to slog through the snow, forest, and hills, so you'll have to think about how many turns he will recall units. Dwarves will do well in the mountains, as will the flying gryphons.

Early finish bonus for killing the enemy leader.

=== Scenario 19B - Swamp Of Dread ===
Scenario objectives: Kill all enemy leaders.

There are lots of undead, but also many villages. You can earn lots of gold if you can capture and hold villages. It may be useful recruiting cheap units to defend villages against bats. One of the Death Knights drops the Void Armor when killed. The unit that picks it up will gain high resistance to physical damage (blade, impact and pierce). Since Li'sar is vulnerable to precisely those types of damage, you should probably give her the armor.

Early finish bonus for killing all 5 enemy leaders.

Tip:This is another stage where you can use mermans specifically your strongest merman, merman priestess and ones with the tridents.

=== Scenario 19C - The Cliffs of Thoria ===
Scenario Objective: Make it to the end of the river

Turns: 45

Defeat:
* Death of Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar, or Kalenz
* Turns run out

Early Finish Bonus: 40% gold carryover

Starting Units:
* Konrad
* Delfador
* Li'sar
* Kalenz
* Your strongest merman

After a little spat between Kalenz and the merman you use to go east, you'll head for the Cliffs of Thoria. You'll find a long water level full of derelict vessels of the Queen. You'll also meet a Drake. After some conversation you discover that the Queens' forces attacked the Drakes, and now the Drakes will stop you from going forward. Since you have to move forward, you'll have to fight them.

There are a number of small islands on this map with Drake bases. Each base will produce one Drake every turn until one of your units occupies the base. This means this level offers an enormous amount of experience, but is extremely difficult as you'll be fighting in water against a constant tide of Drakes.

Further, if you move outside of the stream, you'll discover very powerful undead enemies to the south. Basically, avoid the dark blue water. Even if you kill the undead, they'll just come back immediately, so don't try.

This map also contains a trident, useful for giving one of your mermen a magical electric attack.

Tip: Compared to the other two choices, this map is insanely hard. While there is an opportunity to pick up another loyal unit, you may wish to skip the challenge unless you have at least 1000 gold and a sufficient number of leveled-up mermen.

Tip: If you're going to insist on playing this map, hire many turns worth of gryphons and merfolk and move as fast as you can and just take the heavy losses. Since each base creates a unit every turn, to destroy a base you have to kill the unit occupying it and then move onto the base in that turn. Since merfolk can't move onto mountains, you'll need the gryphons to destroy bases.

== Scenario 20 - Home of the North Elves ==
* Objectives:
** Reach the forest kingdom of Emetria
** Survive until turns run out
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 21
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: 47 Gold per turn
* Other:
** Your base will be dismantled after the first turn

This is a very large map with some interesting challenges. First, Konrad needs to move all the way across to the right side, and if you're playing on Medium or Hard, you don't have many turns to waste. Second, Fog of War is turned on, so you won't know where the enemy is until you blunder into them.

On the other hand, while both the orc and human sides will attack you, you can lure them into attacking each other. The orcs start in the north central part of the map, while the humans begin in the southeast. You must decide whether Konrad will try to sneak along the northern map edge, or try to thread between the two opponents.

In order to win, Konrad must be in the Elvish castle by the end of the last turn. The early finish bonus is rather substantial: 44 gp per turn. However, you only get it if you kill both enemy leaders. Also, if both leaders are dead, it no longer matters whether your hero has reached the elven castle. Therefore, if one's dead already, killing the other makes for a workable 'plan b' if you realise you're 4 turns away from the castle, but only 2 away from the timer running out. (In 1.1, the enemy camps have been reinforced, and it is no longer practical to kill the leaders.)

Version 1.2.5:
In this version, the fastest and best way for me was to just make Konrad run alone. Don't recall any units as the elvish riders that appear can be cannon fodder if necessary. Start by moving near the river side until you see orcs in the distance. Proceed slowly and wait for them to engage the humans. Then a group of elves will rush in to fight both orcs and humans. Time your run carefully between the elven forces in a NE direction and you can avoid meeting any humans or orcs. I think I finished in 13 or 14 turns without a single shot being fired (or flaming sword being slashed).

Alternate Strategy:

If you don't feel too confident, you can always try the most cowardly route of all, by going through the plains to the South, where you can eventually jump the river to safety. However, if you go through by this route, you will have to get close to "glancing blow" distance of the Humans- and their literal army of roughly 20 Swordsmen, guarding the west side of their encampment.

== Scenario 21 - The Elven Council ==
This is a cut-scene furthering the storyline. No combat takes place.

== Scenario 22 - Return to Wesnoth ==
Scenario objectives: Kill all three enemy leaders.

Three Halbardiers appear as enemy reinforcements in the lower southeastern corner of the map when you slay the nearest general, Josephus. The bridge across the river is a good place to establish a defensive position, since attackers have to use the beach and water hexes to attack. Use the forests to your advantage: elven troops are best in forest, while the loyalists and orcs are seriously slowed by the trees.

Early finish bonus for killing all enemy leaders: 27 Gold

== Scenario 23 - Test of the Clans ==
* Objectives: Defeat either all four leaders or 25 units in total
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 53
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
* Early finish bonus: 55 Gold per turn

This is a large map against mostly Knights, Horsemen and Bowmen. The map is mostly open plains which is ideal for horse-bound units. The easiest way to win the scenario is to keep all your units in one group and take them en mass to the enemy. Fast and powerful units like Grand Knights, Lancers or Paladins are important. Units with pierce attacks (Archers, Shydes, Knights) will do good damage to Knights.

Expect heavy losses from the charge attacks, but don't fret because this is the second-to-last scenario. You'll want to finish this scenario quickly to get a nice bonus for the next level.

When any of the enemy leaders is killed, it is replaced with one or two knights (two or three in Hard). Reportedly, one way to win is to gang up on Bayar with fast units while attacking the south-eastern leader with the rest of your army.

If you want to have a long field battle, you can put groups of dwarves or elves in the hills. The enemy will tend to attack the hills, thus giving you some advantage. Hills also make a good safe haven for healing your mounted units. Try to kill the south-eastern leader early so you don't have to divert so many of your resources to the south flank.

If you want to kill all the clan leaders before killing 25 units (which finishes the scenario), recruit a castle of healers, then recruit a good force of Gryphon Riders. Grab as many villages as is safe, and then position your Gryphons on the deep water in the lake. The next castleful of recruits is your main army and two more Gryphon rides. March this south, take out the south-east leader and then send the two Gryphons to the group in the lake.

As soon as the majority of the northwest leader's troops move away from him, assassinate him with your Gryphons. He should die in 1-2 rounds of attacks assuming you don't lose too many of your troops. In the south-east, recruit a couple of castles worth of Gryphon Riders and send them west to take on the Southwest (black) leader, all the while keeping your main force just out of range of attackers if at all possible. As your Gryphons cross the river on the offensive, the AI usually moves troops back in to defend with. You should be able to out-run these. Converge all the Gryphons you have left on the middle leader (purple). I won around turn 25 giving me around 1600 gold to start the last scenario.

== Scenario 24 - The Battle for Wesnoth ==
* Objectives: Defeat Asheviere
* Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
* Turns: 60
* Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar, as many Grand Knights as you defeated in the last map
* Early finish bonus: 46
Scenario objectives: Defeat Asheviere and, by killing her, reclaim the throne.

One good strategy for this scenario is to set up camp around your fort and let the enemy come to you. You'll want to make sure the units on your front line can survive the beating they receive for one turn, and then you rotate them with freshly healed units. Don't attack the attackers if it means your unit won't have enough hit points to survive the next thrashing. Three or four healers will be needed behind the lines, and keep them fully occupied (remember that healers will heap 8HP to every unit adjacent to them. They're like walking sets of 6 villages).

For front-line units, level one Dwarvish Guardsman are excellent; they'll take a good beating but not lose too many hit points because of their steadfast attribute. Because they don't lose many HP, they'll also heal quickly. Only attack the enemy if no hit points will be lost. Guardsmen can throw a spear at the attacker on every turn if the attacker has no ranged attack.

Other units that are good for the front line are any unit with more than 50HP. Elvish Marshals will make your Dwarvish Guardsmen even more awesome. Dwarvish Lords have an incredible 79HP and can dish it out back to the enemy. Unfortunately, after a good thrashing, these units will take a long time to heal back up because of the large number of HP lost.

If you have any Assassins, rotate them up and down the line poisoning each enemy unit. The enemies have very few villages available to them, so with three Assassins you can poison half the army until the enemies have a bunch of level three units walking around with 1HP each.

Once the enemy has no army left, you can just wander up to Asheviere and discuss her resignation over a cup of hot tea. Asheviere has exactly 48 HP, so three hits of a 16-damage weapon, like the Scepter, or four 12-damage hits, is enough for the kill. Or you could surround her with about 20 Elvish Shamans and get the last little bit of fun juice out of this game.

A quick assassination can even be performed by Master Gryphons or even sometimes Gryphon Riders: you can recruit a castle of them on turn 1, send them south, elude enemy forces sent by the general in the futile attempt to catch you, then approach Asheviere for the kill (she will not have many troops at her own protection). Using this strategy, I won on turn 6 (and without losses). Swarming all four enemies with 6 new knights each turn is a very effective distraction strategy. Asheviere may divert about half of her force to destory the Gryphons. If this happens, congratulations. This means you've won. You should have still about 20 living Knights, and you should easily break through her lines.

A good bonus from The Test of the Clans should be enough to win this scenario.

One extraordinarily hilarious way to win this battle is through mass recruiting of Knights, which is quite possibly the only level Two unit you can ever recruit in the mainline campaigns. With roughly 1500 Gold from the plains battle, you can recall every single unit of level two or higher before recruiting loads of Knights to massacre the enemy with suicidal attacks. As long as you keep your heroes alive... It'll be a very bloody, but short, win.

== Scenario 25 - Epilogue ==

[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]][[Category:Campaigns - Heir to the Throne]]