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HeirToTheThrone

2011-08-10T15:37:23Z

Vanwaril: /* Scenario 5B - Isle of the Damned */

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.<br>

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.

While your new units might seem weaker than your old troops, they are chaotic like their undead opponents and Thugs and Footpads deal useful impact damage. Use the Footpads effectively to hold your line and the Thugs to deal the main portion of the damage.

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 - their pierce damage does very little to the undead, especially at night. Mermen are also useful to hold the many isolated villages scattered throughout the map.

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. There are only a few ways to achieve the early finish. One involves recalling mermen from the previous scenario, including the one with the magical trident, and sending them to kill the southern lich, while land troops attack the other.

The other two center on Moremirmu. Get Moremirmu early, and send him along with a few footmen and thugs north, and use other units to draw fire. Meanwhile, secure the rest of the center of the map from the south. If Moremirmu can finish off the first Lich in time, send that group south -- it takes 10 turns to reach the other Lich, so you'll need to accomplish this by Turn 16! The alternative is to simultaneously send a large force south with Konrad, lure the Lich onto bad ground and surround it.

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.
<br />
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:
** 300 gold gift from Li'sar
** 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]]

TheSouthGuard

2011-08-10T11:26:04Z

Vanwaril: /* Into the Depths */

The walkthrough is based (mostly) on medium difficulty.

== Born To The Banner ==
* Objectives: Defeat Bandit leader
* Lose if: Deoran dies or turns run out
* Turns: 40/32/24 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting Gold: 120/100/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Moreth

The recommended course in the beginning here is to head to the River Fort, which is just out of range. Before leaving, however, note that you can recruit here. You can only recruit Peasants for now, and will be able to get better units soon. In general you should save your money for the Bowmen and Spearmen to come, but it might be nice to bring in a single Peasant now for a special mission. After that, everybody should head towards a village. You might as well park Deoran at 16, 8 and move Moreth towards 24, 8. Turn 2 you reach the River Fort and are rewarded by an Infantry Lieutenant joining your forces. Sir Gerrick will be able to supply your troops with weapons and armor to make Bowmen and Spearmen. Now you can send Deoran back to the keep to recruit in earnest. If you recruited the Peasant last turn, send him towards the 'village' in the river at 6, 10. This might be considered a little bit of spoiler, but you will find a pleasant surprise there. Actually, if you are making a concerted effort to flag all villages [You ARE, aren't you?] you will eventually find this, but you might not be aware that this is a village. Besides, if you get there too late it won't help this scenario...

On turn three Deoran should be back in the keep recruiting Bowmen. Bring in the some Spearmen, but the bulk of your forces for now should be Bowmen. This is because the Urza mostly recruits Thugs, which have no ranged attack. Once you've discovered your enemy's weakness, you're halfway to defeating them. Even with your Spearmen, you'll want to stick to thrown spears at night against the Thugs unless your target is wounded enough that you are likely to finish it off. Your other forces are too skimpy to accomplish anything now, so have them continue to capture unallied villages. One keep worth of troops [four units] is likely not enough to last all the way to the Urza, so go ahead and stay for another round of recruiting. By turn 5[or earlier on Hard difficulty] you will be nearly out of money, but will have a decent size force along the northern bank of the river. It's okay to run out of money this early in a scenario, as you'll be earning more income from your villages every turn. This is now night-time, during which your [lawful] forces will be weaker and the bandits [chaotic] will be stronger. Short of suicide, the reasonable thing to do is to assume a defensive stance until the sun rises.

By now your troops will be somewhat scattered. You might want to get used to tapping the "n" key several times before ending your turn. "n" brings the focus to next unit that has any movement points left. This way it will be easy to find those units you might have forgotten. Most of your units should be arranged in a line [more of a crescent, really] from the River Fort going east. Moreth [the Pikeman/Spearman/Peasant(depending on difficulty level) who joined you at the start] might have gotten all the way to the village at 22, 12. If so, he could be safe there, unless you see several enemy units moving his way. Another gamble would be moving the Peasant down to 5, 16 and send the Mermen, if any, into the middle of the swamp. This could be enough of a distraction to split up the Bandit army marching towards the river fort. These are the only of your troops that will be somewhat safe south of the river.

Normal advice is to put leaders and healers in the 'second line' behind the front line. You don't have any healers yet, but Sir Gerrick can help lead. Depending upon what difficulty level you selected upon starting the campaign, Deoran is probably only first level. Note that leadership only applies to units that are lower in level than the leader. A first level leader can only lead Peasants and other zero level troops. Sir Gerrick will be able to direct the fire of your Bowmen to better effect and will also be able to exert his influence on Deoran. It will be a priority for you to get Deoran enough experience to advance to the next level without getting him killed. Ideally you'd also like to minimize the number of times he becomes wounded bad enough to have to pull away from the battle and retreat to a village for healing. Usually this is accomplished by having your other troops soften up a target such that your leader can get the kill. You don't have to attack every character every turn, particularly if it looks like you'll take more damage than you'll dish out.

On turn 7 the daylight comes: your counterattacks will have more effect, and you should be crossing the river in force on turn 8. When you capture the village at 15, 12 you will be rewarded with Aleron, a Peasant who is loyal to you. In game terms, he will work for you for free [has no upkeep]. Since he is only a level 0, there's no upkeep cost anyway. Big deal, right? Well, it is. You should make every effort to keep those loyal troops alive, and those should be the ones that reach the highest levels. If Aleron becomes a Royal Guard or Master Bowman [units which normally cost you 3 gold per turn to supply], he will still be loyal and still cost you nothing. Moreth and the Mermen are loyal as well, so keep them alive. That means don't throw Mermen away on land attacks. Keep them in the river or swamps where they are better adapted. After you have crossed the river, leave them behind as a rear guard.

As you press towards the Urza, the majority of your troops will be funneled along the road south. A few should come along the edge of the hills in order to attack the enemy keep from due north. The idea here is to get the enemy to split up his forces, or you'll have an unguarded area to attack. By turn 9 you should be in more defensible terrain [forest, hills or mountains] as night will be falling again. Hopefully you will have dispatched the majority of the baddies in the battle by the river, but a lucky strike by some bandits could still cripple you. By the way [this is a matter of playing style] I usually pull a unit back for healing once its health bar turns yellow or red. There are times when you have to sacrifice a unit to achieve some bigger goal, but you'll never get your units to level up if they get killed before they get enough experience...

By turn 11 or so, you should have captured all the villages on the map. On turn 12 I would expect to see some of your units in the enemy keep. The keep is the best defensive terrain; also, the more of its area you fill up, the fewer fresh troops the enemy can recruit. By turn 13 your troops could be attacking the Urza himself, and daylight is coming. With luck you can finish him off on turn 14. Since the enemy keep is mostly surrounded by forest it gets kind of fussy juggling all your troops around so as to rest the wounded, bring your attackers where they will do the most good [Bowmen against Thugs, Spearmen against Poachers, or either against Footpads], and get the most from your leaders. If it not obvious, you can have Sir Gerrick direct several attacks, move him, direct more attacks, etc. Optimally he should finish his turn by attacking. Ideally you'd like the killing blow against the Urza to be delivered by Sir Gerrick or [better] Deoran. That way he can accumulate enough experience to eventually advance.

== Proven By The Sword ==
* Objectives: Capture the Citadel of Westin and defeat Bandit leader
* Lose if: Deoran or Sir Gerrick die or turns run out
* Turns: 40/32/28 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 130/100/85
* Starting Units: Deoran, Sir Gerrick

Similar to the last go round, this scenario comes in two parts: first is seizing control of the Westin Keep, second is actually defeating the enemy. I would initially recall Moreth and Aleron [the loyal ground troops] and one Bowman who has accumulated good experience. You are sitting in a temporary keep right now, fill it up and go capture a village. You don't want to hang around, but it would be risky to send Deoran into the city alone. Turn 2 send Deoran back to the keep to recall/recruit more troops. Again you'll want a mix of types, but Bowmen should still predominate. Meanwhile send the first batch of troops south to handle the Footpads that are coming your way. Sir Gerrick could either head down with them or accompany the other bunch into the city.

Here I'll give a few words about a few of the criminals: Footpads and Thieves are "elusive" units, which means that they are extremely agile and quite fast. If they are on halfway defensible terrain, you'll have a pathetic 30% chance to hit them. However, they are weak to blades and piercing weapons, so if you do hit them, you do more damage. The other thing to watch out for is the 'backstab' ability that the Thieves possess: they can stab for double damage if an allied unit is on the other side of their target. You have to keep you units close enough together that they can't break through and surround you.

By turn 4 Deoran and his retinue should cross the bridge and face down the criminals in the city. If it takes you longer than that, the Urza's forces will have reinforced the city and you'll have a *much* harder time crossing the river. After Deoran has captured the city [i.e., is at the hex 22, 16; labeled 'Westin'], the citizens of the city will give him 5 more loyal troops: 4 more peasants and a White Mage. Minister Hylas is an extremely important figure in this campaign, and is currently the only of your troops who will be very effective against the undead that you will soon face. e also bears the blue badge that all significant characters wear. Deoran should recruit/recall again here, possibly including bringing back the loyal Mermen, then go on the attack. The Peasants will be kind of difficult to keep alive against the criminals they face, so perhaps send a few of them around to capture the blue villages. However, in this scenario I had a Peasant upgrade to Bowman and again to Longbowman.

Now the Urza begins playing hardball: he won't capture any of your villages. If one of his troops comes upon a village held by you, they will destroy it. It is up to you if you need the money bad enough to keep troops behind and defend the villages. The important thing is to take all villages away from him to reduce how many recruits he can send against you. Of course, we should also think of the happiness of our citizens, as well... Once you have Minister Hylas on your side, the Urza reveals all the tricks up his sleeve: he can recruit Undead. The Undead Skeletons are a real nuisance, as they are highly resistant to attacks by piercing and bladed weapons [exactly the kind that all of your troops, except Minister Hylas, possess].

If you're curious, select a Skeleton and look at the description. Depending upon how the version of Wesnoth you are using was compiled, usually this is accomplished by pressing the 'd' key or right-clicking and selecting 'Unit Description'. You will see that the Skeletons are vulnerable to fire and impact weapons, and particularly weak against arcane attacks. You don't have any fire attacks yet, and the only impact attack you have is Minister Hylas' very weak melee staff. His arcane 'Lightbeam' spell, though, is extremely powerful against these foul creatures, however:

* The Skeletons' -50% resistance to this attack means you will deliver much better damage to them. During broad daylight this totals up to a maximum 51 points of damage every turn.

* Three strikes make it quite reliable, and two hits will bring down a Skeleton from full health at daytime.

* The Lightbeam is a magical attack. This means that it does not matter if they're hiding in mountains, a village or whatever; you still have a 70% chance to hit them.

* The majority of the Skeletons have no ranged attack. There is no better attack for you than an attack with no risk of counterattack...

With the exception of Minister Hylas, your only other option for an effective anti-Skeleton unit would be a Merman Netcaster, which you could get if you manage to level up your loyal Hunter from the previous mission. This can be done by feeding him 1 or 2 kills in the previous mission and allowing him to take down a second level bandit unit once you've arrived in Westin. He has impact weaponry in both melee and ranged, and his ranged attack's 'Slow' ability can paralyze a Skeleton in the river. Having a Netcaster would significantly ease your river-crossing effort.

Anyway, by turn 8 you can have cleared the west bank of the river and will be lined up ready to wade across. As before, wait for dawn to start the attack and you should be able to beat you way through during the day. Since the water is such an impediment to travel, you might risk putting units into the river along row 24. Even though they are exposed there [typically 20% defense means they would be hit 80% of the time], enemies would themselves have to step into the water to attack you there. Since it typically takes 3 to 4 movement points to pass through water, a unit standing [for example] on 18, 23 would run out of points before getting to dry land. It's much better to end your turn on the shore.

If it takes longer to clear out the city, or if the resistance in the south is particularly stiff, then better wait on your side of the river and let them attack you from the water. By turn 14 you should have reduced their numbers enough to make it across. Some of the bad guys will try to ford the eastern stream [hexes 26, 22 to 29, 23]. I would send a handful of troops [assisted by the Mermen] down the east bank of the river to prevent those from getting behind you.

After you've crossed the river again, the rest is quite straightforward: get through the forest to the enemy keep, and beat them down. I should mention that while Minister Hylas is healing all of your troops that are near him, nobody is healing Minister Hylas. Since he is so critical, you'll have to retreat him if he gets banged up too bad. It takes some juggling since he is your only effective undead fighter. However, he can't fight them if he's dead...

== A Desperate Errand ==
* Objectives: Move Deoran to the elvish city
* Lose if: Deoran, Sir Gerrick or Minister Hylas die or turns run out
* Turns: 30/24/20 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 120/105/75
* Starting Units: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas

There is a marker at 17,7 indicating where Deoran should head, though it is partly obscured by the large tree in front of it. You don't need lots of troops for this scenario, maybe just two or three keeps worth at most. On the first turn I would just bring back the loyals, perhaps one of them a Merman. Don't head to the target yet, as on turn two Jarek[a Cavalier, Dragoon, or Cavalryman depending on difficulty level] will arrive and you will gain the ability to recruit Cavalrymen. Buy one or two to screen Deoran, and then perhaps bring back another Merman. Deoran and the other mounted troops can immediately cross the river heading North, while the others head West. When there are no enemies in the immediate area, the cavalry can capture villages while still remaining somewhat close to Deoran. He should just make a beeline towards the elven keep. As enemies get closer he should be a little more conservative in his movement; not ending his turn in a forest, for example.

By about turn six or seven the walking and swimming types should be in the neighborhood of the village at 12, 24 while the Vampire Bats will be catching up with the horsey set having just crossed the river again. You should be able to hold 12, 24 though expect to see some fierce attempts to wrest the village from you. It would be possible to send a Merman to the village at 4, 23, though i wouldn't recommend you send anybody you really like there, as they're likely to get slaughtered. Still, it might be worthwhile to send a throwaway [read: non-loyal] Merman there to take the heat off the main force around 12, 24. Note that the scenario objectives say nothing about defeating the Urza. Your foot troops need only engage him to keep him out of Deoran's hair, and you're home free. Of course if you are able to finish him off, then good for you.

Note that on Easy difficulty, you'll only be facing a few bandits, while on the harder difficulties, first level Skeletons will also join them. So remember to keep Minister Hylas and perhaps a Netcaster around to help your main force combat them. As for the bandits, your regular troops[ideally, Cavalrymen, Swordsmen and Longbowmen by now] can easily handle 'em.
Note that Cavalrymen are impressively tough against the blade and impact weapons used by Thugs, Footpads and Thieves, and their own blades can slice these units to pieces. Try to level them up and they'll be useful later, and also try not to allow Poachers and Skeleton Archers to shoot them, as they are weak to arrows.

== Vale of Tears ==
* Objectives: Defeat all enemies and move Ethiliel to Mebrin's village
* Lose if: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas or Ethiliel die or turns run out
* Turns: 40/32/28 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 150/125/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas, Ethiliel, and Jarek

I might initially recall a single keep worth of troops, as another five bodies might be overkill on top the now large retinue around Deoran. On the other hand, you'll have to fight Skeletons again, so expect to lose a few. As always, Minister Hylas can take down one every turn. Ethiliel can put her 'Ensnare' attack to good use as well. It uses impact damage and, like the Merman Netcaster, has the beneficial effect of Slowing down the target. If she hits, the target will only deliver half damage for the remaining of this round and the beginning of next. It's best to use her to attack an axe-wielding Skeleton, then quickly finish it off with your melee fighters. You'll have to rein in the temptation to have Deoran or any of the mounted fighters charge in ahead of the others, that could be a form of suicide. If you keep your troops shoulder-to-shoulder [in a line] that'll reduce the ability of the enemy to gang up on any one character. Of course, you can afford to take more risks after there are only a few skeletons left. There will also be times when you choose to expose some of your troops in order to surround and defeat an enemy.

If you have chosen Hard difficulty, though, this part of the mission becomes significantly harder as the enemy can recruit second level Revenants and Bone Shooters instead of the normal first level skellies you've been facing so far. The basic tactics remain the same, but the Bone Shooters can be problematic as you cannot us Minister Hylas on them because of their strong retaliation fire, and because their powerful arrows are extremely effective against your Cavalry and Deoran. However, you should have leveled up Gerrick by now, and his Slowing impact shield-bash attack combined with leadership-boosted melee Swordsmen ought to be able to contain the Shooters. If you keep your important units(loyals, leveled-up troops, etc.) alive, this could be an opportunity to gain large amounts of experience as each second level unit gives you double the XP as a first level unit would.

When your first unit dies, Ethiliel summons her bodyguard of 2 loyal Elvish Rangers, who are fast and powerful in the forest. You might want to recruit a Peasant to go on a suicide rush for this purpose.

After you have finished off Mal A'kai you can use his keep to replenish your forces for the next battle. A useful shortcut at this point might be to send Ethiliel due South after she's done bashing Skeletons. Hopefully won't really need her help to deal with the villains in the woods, Also, the sooner you send her off to Mebrin's village, the sooner you can complete the second objective for this scenario. If she circles around the eastern side of the lake she can make the village [31, 32] in about a half dozen turns.

Meanwhile the villains should mostly be so spread out as to be easy prey. Just regular first level bandit scum. Slice them to pieces, and you win.

== Choice In The Fog ==
* Objectives: Defeat all enemies
* Lose if: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas or Ethiliel die or turns run out
* Turns: 50/40/35 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 150/125/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas, Ethiliel, and Jarek
* Other: You must side with either the Elves or the Bandits when you first sight the bandit keep

The title is a precise summation of this scenario, but more about that later. Right now, you're surrounded by fog that only lets you see as far as you can move in the next turn. One possible [though expensive] means of dealing with this is to make sure that every squad of yours has a fast moving unit like Cavalrymen with them. However, cavalry fight at a disadvantage in the woods, which is mostly what you'll be dealing with here. Elves are much better in the forest, and therein lies the choice I mentioned earlier. You won't be forced to chose yet, but you may as well think about it: your decision will affect the type of recruits you are about to gather. As of now, Ethiliel will allow you to recruit Elvish Fighters and Elvish Shamans. The Shaman is the only healing unit you'll get other than Ethiliel and Minister Hylas in the whole campaign, and also has a Slowing attack which can come in handy against strong opponents. If you choose to ally with the Bandits, you will then be allowed to recruit units that are strong against Undead. If you're going to go that way, then don't bother recruiting any elves, as you will not be keeping them long.

So recruit a keep's worth of mixed troops. You might need more, depending upon how you choose. Your objective now is simply to explore. I don't think it will be too much of a spoiler to tell you that there are a handful of sites to ford the river, but only one bridge. I usually send freshly-recruited Elves and loyal Mermen along the river, since it's a long way across the map. Minister Hylas and the rest of the humans, including fast-moving Dragoons, should march south along the road and across the bridge. Of course, if you're going with the elves, you may as well reinforce them with some Elvish Fighters and a Shaman or two as well. Your northern Elves will eventually encounter some resistance about three quarters of the way across. After you've cleared the northern bank, prepare to cross the river and meet them on their own turf.

Meanwhile, the others should keep heading south and will eventually run into hordes of Soulless zombies. While they are quite weak individually, wave after wave of them can eventually wear down even the strongest hero. The unique plague attack of the Walking Corpses and Soulless means that any living creature they kill will be brought back as one of their own. Keep your fighters close to Minister Hylas, and rotate them as necessary. As level zero creatures, Walking Corpses don't exert a Zone of Control. In practical terms, it means that they can't slow your movement. Just remember you are in no hurry, and eventually you will beat them at their own game. Even if they hurry it is unlikely that they could meet up with their brethren for the battle against the Skeletons on the east side. The leader of the Walking Corpses is a level one Soulless called Gruth.

A faster alternate strategy for the western front would involve sending Etheliel's bodyguard Rangers straight south across the bridge and through the forest at maximum speed. Using their 'Ambush' stealth ability to get past the Soulless hordes unnoticed, they can quickly reach and assassinate Gruth and cut off the supply of zombie reinforcements. After that, the Rangers would join up with the rest of the southern force and help clear out the remaining enemies.

On the eastern front, you will face bandits and such again. Eventually sordid secrets will be revealed, and you will be forced to choose between them and the Elves. If you chose Bandits, your elven allies will IMMEDIATELY disappear. This may leave some of your units exposed to counterattack from the undead, so beware. After so choosing, Urza Afalas and all his surviving bandits will become yours to command, and you will be able to use his keep to recruit more Thugs and Footpads. Both are well suited to cracking skeletal skulls with their impact weapons. If you choose to stay with the Elves, of course you'll have the Shamans and fast Fighters to console you as you fight your way through the bandits, and plus, you also get to keep Ethiliel and her bodyguards. By the time you are through with them, the Skeletons will probably be making their way up from their keep on the southeast corner of the map.

Just keep bashing away, and eventually you will win through to the big baddie: Mal M'Brin, who, in terms of number of units, is actually quite weak and easy to defeat. This name might sound vaguely familiar, but I won't go into that now. Just keep in mind that it is tougher than the other two leaders put together. Its magic attack can hit you for a basic 36 points [Dawn/Dusk] of ranged magical cold damage, while its melee attack does 24 points of arcane. It's worse than that, however, as the melee attack can drain hit points from the target to regain Mal's hit points. Just keep hammering away at it, and hold Deoran back so he can get the final whack. It turns out that this is merely an apparition of the real Mal M'Brin, and the actual one is hiding in tunnels beneath his keep.

After this scenario, there will be a branch: If you chose to stay with the elves, you'll lead Sir Gerrick back to Wesnoth to deliver news of the undead in a scenario that's almost a pushover, and then you'll try to hunt out Mal inside his caves. If you chose to go with the bandits, then you'll try to return to Wesnoth, but the remaining undead, under the real Mal M'Brin, will follow you. The first fork is much less difficult.

If you are going to side with the elves, delay meeting the bandits for a while. That way they and the undead will weaken one another. Conversely, if you are going to side with the bandits, get there ASAP; once Urza Afalas joins you, his recruits are yours. Along those lines, don't kill too many bandits before allying with them.

== Diverging campaign path - Elf branch ==
=== Tidings, Good and Ill ===
* Objectives: Move Sir Gerrick to the north of the woods and defeat the Naga Queen
* Lose if: Sir Gerrick dies or turns run out
* Turns: 18 (all difficulties)
* Starting Gold: 100
* Starting Units: Sir Gerrick and an Elvish Ranger

Recruit some Elvish Fighters, and push northwards. If you had leveled any Heroes or Druids on the previous mission, bring them along too. None of your opponents will be any match for you. Make sure you have a healer, i.e, a Shaman or a Druid. If you don't already have a Druid, though, try to level up your Shaman. Also try to use Gerrick's leadership whenever you can.

Try and fight the enemies one at a time; deal with the first batch of Saurians, then stay a little to the left and take out the Ogre. Then move right and kill the Nagas, luring them on to land and, preferably, Slowing the Myrmidon with a Shaman/Druid or with Gerrick's shield bash. After that, take out the Dark Adepts in the north. Remember to encounter the enemies on your terms, as and when you are best prepared.

=== Into the Depths ===
* Objectives: Root out the source of the undead
* Lose if: Deoran, Minister Hylas or Ethiliel die or turns run out
* Turns: 50/45/40 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 125/100/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Minister Hylas, and Ethiliel

One of the few genuinely tough scenarios in this campaign, mainly because you're fighting underground with Loyalist humans and Elves. The Loyalists are lawful and get -25% damage penalties, and the Elves get very poor evasion and are heavily slowed down. Recall your blade-armed units, like Royal Guards, at the start, along with any other loyal troops, and then maybe some Elvish Fighters for fodder and a Shaman or two for healing/slowing support. Avoid Cavalry - they completely suck in caves. Also, try for units with 6 moves(ones with the 'quick' trait), as they'll be able to cover and extra hex every turn through the caves compared to 5-move units. If you've leveled Minister Hylas into a Mage of Light, he'll be very useful here, supporting your lawful human troops with his Illumination ability and blasting Undead with his boosted Lightbeams.

At the start, you face an "Eyestalk" creature with a powerful draining ranged attack, and a regular Revenant nearby. The Eyestalk is difficult and dangerous to take down using ranged attackers, but it is easily dispatched by blade-armed units as it is weak against them. The reason I advised bringing blades down here is simple: they're the most useful damage type you have in this dungeon. Although far inferior to impact when facing Skeletons and Ghouls, it is nevertheless a good deal better than piercing damage, which is your only other option. Your archers are still relatively useful against Ghost-type Undead, though.

You will encounter a fork soon, one heading south and the other continuing east, with skeletons and ghouls pressing from both sides. Heading south will bring you into contact with the Trolls, but even if you choose not to ally with them, you gain access to a bridge that gives you a shorter route to Mal M'Brin's castle than the fork going east.

If you choose to offer the Trolls 200 gold, they ally with you and also grant you a shortcut to Mal M'Brin's castle. The scenario is extremely easy if you fight alongside the Trolls. Once you've payed, simply move your army towards the bomb and let the Trolls duke it out against the pursuing Undead. Take their villages if you want. Then, once you reach the bomb, detonate it and storm into Mal M'Brin's chamber. He'll have some Undead and Dark Adepts in the region, but you ought to be able to fight them off without much trouble. When that's done, take out M'Brin, and you win.

If you want to try to fight the trolls, offer them freedom. They don't want that. They'll turn it down, and you can barrage them with Elvish Fighters. However, fighting against the Trolls is not advisable - even if you don't have enough gold to buy their help, offer them gold anyway and you can pay later once you collect that amount. Or even if you don't pay them at all, you still keep them neutrally aligned and none of your business, instead of turning them against yourself.

=== Return to Kerlath ===
* Objectives: Move Deoran into Kerlath Province
* Lose if: Deoran, Minister Hylas or Ethiliel die or turns run out
* Turns: 22/20/18 (easy/medium/hard)
* Base Starting Gold: 125/100/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Minister Hylas, and Ethiliel

This is a straightforward level, a walk in the park to put it simply. Recall your high-level units, and then slaughter the bandits. They are relatively strung out and have only first level units interspersed with a few level twos. They should be easy pickings for your army by this point.

Just keep moving Deoran north, and level any units that still need a bit more experience. When you cross the bridge and meet the Wesnoth lieutenant, you win.

=== Vengeance ===
* Objectives: Keep the elves from sacking Westin, then move Ethiliel to the Great Tree
* Lose if: Deoran or Ethiliel die or turns run out
* Turns: No limit
* Base Starting Gold: 125/100/80
* Starting Units: Deoran, Minister Hylas, Sir Gerrick and Ethiliel and several defenders

Another simple mission, once you know how to play it. Just get one of the free Spearmen killed as soon as possible, which will activate the victory condition of moving Ethiliel to the Great Tree. Spam fodder units to screen her. It's even easier to do this if she's a Shyde by now, since she can flank north through the hills at full speed. Do not kill the enemy Elves - it will just cause more, stronger Elves to appear near the Great Tree, exactly where you do not want them.

Once Ethiliel reaches the tree, you win the mission and the campaign.

== Diverging campaign path - Bandit branch ==
=== Long March ===
* Objectives: Move Deoran across the river
* Lose if: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas or Urza Afalas die or turns run out
* Turns: 30/25/20 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Deoran, Sir Gerrick, Minister Hylas, Afalas and Jarek

Just follow Urza Afalas for a standard scenario unless you want a challenge, in which case head north and fight. The end result is the same.

Actually, the above is a matter of opinion. In earlier versions, following the suggestion of the Urza would allow you to sneak around the edges of the map with relatively few contacts with the enemy. As of version 1.3.14 and above, many users find that this scenario is so hard that they end up going back to "Choice in the Fog" and choosing to side with the elves. In the newer versions, the amount and level of enemies that come hunting you down will provide plenty of challenge even if all your important characters are fully leveled up. For starters, this scenario resembles "Crossroads" from the Heir to the Throne campaign in that every time you step off the path you are likely to create several new elves to harass you. Staying on the path makes you an easy target for the hordes of undead and elves that each want your blood. The only reprieve you'll have is that the elves and undead are equally willing to destroy each other, though in my experience this rarely worked in my favor.

The good thing is that the victory condition is fairly simple: Deoran is the only unit that needs to cross the river. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to let you know that only a Naga awaits you on the South bank of the river, so it's perfectly okay to send him out alone once you've dealt with it. At this point, it would be better if the rest of your team hunker down together in a classic hedgehog defense. The less you move, the fewer elves attack you. Also, you may want to avoid the valley with the three villages in it - setting foot in there summons a large Elven ambush. Actually, the northmost of the three villages is safe to rest in.

There are some elves that will come out even if you keep to the path. The ambushes happen when you stray. You can use this to your advantage by recruiting a Peasant or two. Have them hang back behind the party. When you start to see undead, have the peasants sprint south into the forest/off the path. They will trigger an ambush. Since the undead are south and the triggered ambush is south, hopefully the elves and undead will attack one another (or at least ZOC each other). Besides that, stay to the path. The elves you encounter on the path are weaker than the elves who ambush you.

=== Pebbles in the Flood ===
* Objectives: Hold out as long as possible
* Lose if: n/a
* Turns: n/a
* Starting units: Sir Gerrick, Urza Afalas and several defenders

Deoran leaves Sir Gerrick behind to hold the undead at a border fort while he and Minister Hylas prepare at Westin.
Urza Afalas stays with Gerrick to atone for his prior transgressions.
The objective is to keep Sir Gerrick alive as long as possible.

The longer you hold out, the better the set up is in the next scenario.
The milestones are lasting 6, 22, or 24 turns.
After 6 turns you start getting more starting units, more starting villages and better fortifications.
These benefits are maxed out after 22 turns.
The council will be at your side if you last 24 turns or longer. Any less and they will arrive in (24 - number_of_turns_lasted) turns.

When Gerrick dies, the scenario is over (you 'win'). You cannot kill all the units as Mal M'Brin cannot be hit (in this scenario only).

You will be fighting all undead, so recruit Footpads and Thugs. You can't recall any units (they are all with Deoran, not Gerrick).

=== The Tides of War ===
* Objectives: Defeat Mal M'Brin
* Lose if: Deoran dies or turns run out
* Turns: 60/60/60 (easy/medium/hard)
* Starting units: Deoran, Minister Hylas, Jarek and some defenders

With Gerrick and his band of defenders defeated, the undead arrive at Westin. Deoran has fortified the city and recruited some defenders (how much of both depends on the previous scenario). Minister Hylas has summoned the Council of Westin. The Council consists of a Silver Mage, a Red Mage, two White Mages and an Arch Mage. The Silver Mage, Minister Mefel arrives at the beginning. Depending on how well you did in the last level, the rest of the Council may or may not be with him.

This level is not that difficult and is easy once the Council arrives. Recruit fodder Footpad after fodder Footpad. Secure the two crossings. Note that Draugs are Level 3, so killing a single one can almost level up an intelligent Footpad on its own. When the Council arrives, push towards Mal M'Brin. All the heroes except Deoran can die.

Try and keep your Silver Mage alive. Also when the Red Mage levels up, turn it into a Silver Mage. They will be very helpful when the time comes to kill Mal M'Brin who, as an Ancient Lich, is quite robust.

[[Category:Campaigns - The South Guard]]
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]

HeirToTheThrone

2011-08-10T11:14:11Z

Vanwaril: /* Scenario 5B - Isle of the Damned */

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.<br>

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.

While your new units might seem weaker than your old troops, they are chaotic like their undead opponents and Thugs and Footpads deal useful impact damage. Use the Footpads effectively to hold your line and the Thugs to deal the main portion of the damage.

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 - their pierce damage does very little to the undead, especially at night. Mermen are also useful to hold the many isolated villages scattered throughout the map.

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.
<br />
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:
** 300 gold gift from Li'sar
** 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]]