Dead Water - Revision history

BBeryllium at 01:16, 31 July 2025

2025-07-31T01:16:38Z

JakeCWolf: /* The Mage */ The resistances of Giant Scorpions has been completely flipped, so adjusted the unit recommendations accordingly.

2024-06-12T23:28:27Z

‎The Mage: The resistances of Giant Scorpions has been completely flipped, so adjusted the unit recommendations accordingly.

Revolting peasant: /* Revenge */

2021-03-03T20:10:59Z

‎Revenge

Revolting peasant: /* The Mage */

2021-03-03T20:06:40Z

‎The Mage

Revolting peasant: /* Wolf Coast */

2021-03-03T19:57:56Z

‎Wolf Coast

Revolting peasant: /* Wolf Coast */

2021-03-03T19:56:17Z

‎Wolf Coast

Revolting peasant: /* Wolf Coast */

2020-04-18T18:42:12Z

‎Wolf Coast

Revolting peasant: /* Invasion! */

2017-10-21T22:59:17Z

‎Invasion!

Revolting peasant: /* Revenge */

2017-10-21T16:31:39Z

‎Revenge

Revolting peasant: /* Recruitment and promotion */

2017-10-21T16:28:14Z

‎Recruitment and promotion

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 Netcasters are not immediately recruitable - you have to recruit Hunters, whose damage type is Pierce... you'll have to carefully, but decisively, build up their experience: When they level, not only does their damage type change to Impact (both for ranged and melee), but they also gain the *Slow* effect when attacking from a range, which is incredibly useful: It balances out the day/night cycle advantage of the Undead (damage per attack drops by 50%), as well as their movement advantage on land over the fishy Mermen (50% movement point drop).
-A Priestes is useful already as its Level-1 precursor, the Merman Initiate, as its damage type is Pierce to begin with - and it's magical, so it is more likely to hit even Undead on land. Unsurprisingly, though, Initiates are even more fragile than Hunters, limiting this usefulness. Many scenarios benefit from having at least multiple healer units (for two battle hot-spots, for longer lines and for healing each other), so you should also promote an Initiate or two (or three) to Priestess early on, to supplement your starting Priestess, Cylanna. She's worth "investing" experience in for promotion to Diviner (Level 3), as which she provides the illumination effect. You can often combine Leadership and Illumination by their higher-ups "Inspecting the troops" from behind the battle line: Some leader and a Diviner move in; front-line unit attacks; leader and diviner move to next unit.
+A Priestes is useful already as its Level-1 precursor, the Merman Initiate, as its damage type is Impact to begin with - and it's magical, so it is more likely to hit even Undead on land. Unsurprisingly, though, Initiates are even more fragile than Hunters, limiting this usefulness. Many scenarios benefit from having at least multiple healer units (for two battle hot-spots, for longer lines and for healing each other), so you should also promote an Initiate or two (or three) to Priestess early on, to supplement your starting Priestess, Cylanna. She's worth "investing" experience in for promotion to Diviner (Level 3), as which she provides the illumination effect. You can often combine Leadership and Illumination by their higher-ups "Inspecting the troops" from behind the battle line: Some leader and a Diviner move in; front-line unit attacks; leader and diviner move to next unit.
 Fighters/Warriors and Spearmen are less useful in this campaign, but you will not always be fighting only Undead, so groom a few on your roster, "just in case". Also, magic in various forms may change a unit's damage type, and these units stand to benefit the most for such changes.

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 Note that you won't need to fight the Mage (although from his demeanor it seems like he might jump you...) - nor will you have any other objectives in this level later on. It is just about getting a single unit to Caladon's position: A white temple in the mid-Northern part of the level. This means you'll need two sub-forces: Scout(s) and Defense/diversion.
-'''Pest Control''':  The Giant Scorpions are ''very'' resistant to impact attacks (70%) and have decent HP - but they're also sensitive to arcane damage, extremely susceptible to fire, and have no ranged attack. So the Storm Trident bearer, the holy-water-equipped unit and Priestesses/Diviners work well. It's especially important to have a second healer in addition to Cylanna, since you're going to get poisoned a lot. You only have a tiny fortress to recruit in - 2 recruits/recalls per turn - but if enough of your loyal units have survived, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
+'''Pest Control''':  The Giant Scorpions have a smattering of low resistances and weaknesses to various damage types notably to impact attacks (-10%) and have decent HP - but they're also resistant to arcane and fire, and have no ranged attack. So the Storm Trident bearer, Entanglers/Netcasters, Priestesses/Diviners, Enchantress/Sirens will be useful. It's especially important to have a second healer in addition to Cylanna, since you're going to get poisoned a lot (Scorpions will go out of their way to poison any non-poisoned unit, leaving them open to heavy melee counter attacks). You only have a tiny fortress to recruit in - 2 recruits/recalls per turn - but if enough of your loyal units have survived, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
 Stay near your fortress initially - perhaps even to the West of it, in the water. You'll want to form a short line from the Western to the Southern edge of the level, as the Scorpions will swarm on you, and occasionally so will the Bats. The Bats have a more complex behavior: They spawn at night, rally to some point outside their cave (on the same turn), then attack, and finally return their cave for the day. Be careful not to expose wounded units, as while they're just L1 bats, they're very mobile.

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 Give great respect to the Undead at night, backing off and foregoing attacks. By day, wail on them mercilessly.
-Use your halos effects (Illumination and Leadership) - they are key to fending off larger number of units or mounting a inescapable defense at night. Hopefully, Keshan is both alive and a Flameheart - its leadership bonus will be useful.
+Use your halo effects (Illumination and Leadership) - they are key to fending off larger number of units or mounting a staunch defense at night. Hopefully, Keshan is both alive and a Flameheart - his leadership bonus will be useful.
 A few final tips:

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 In this small, vertical, swampy level you need to locate a Mage who will tell you where to find the flaming sword, which you will later retrieve for Tyegea. Unfortunately, it is infested with Giant Scorpions and Bats, and there are a few other critters too.
-Note that you won't need to fight the Mage (although from his demeanor it seems like he might jump you...) - nor will you have anything else to do on the level, so it's just about getting to a single unit to his position: A white temple in the mid-Northern part of the level. This means you'll need two sub-forces: Scout(s) and Defense/diversion.
+Note that you won't need to fight the Mage (although from his demeanor it seems like he might jump you...) - nor will you have any other objectives in this level later on. It is just about getting a single unit to Caladon's position: A white temple in the mid-Northern part of the level. This means you'll need two sub-forces: Scout(s) and Defense/diversion.
-'''Pest Control''':  The Giant Scorpions are ''very'' resistant to impact attacks (70%) and have decent HP - but they're also sensitive to arcane damage, extremely susceptible to fire, and have no ranged attack. So the Storm Trident bearer, the holy-water-equipped unit and Priestesses/Diviners work well. It's especially important to have a second healer in addition to Cylanna, since you're going to get poisoned a lot. You only have a tiny fortress to recruit in - 2 recruits/recalls per turn - but if enough of your loyal units have survived, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem
+'''Pest Control''':  The Giant Scorpions are ''very'' resistant to impact attacks (70%) and have decent HP - but they're also sensitive to arcane damage, extremely susceptible to fire, and have no ranged attack. So the Storm Trident bearer, the holy-water-equipped unit and Priestesses/Diviners work well. It's especially important to have a second healer in addition to Cylanna, since you're going to get poisoned a lot. You only have a tiny fortress to recruit in - 2 recruits/recalls per turn - but if enough of your loyal units have survived, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
 Stay near your fortress initially - perhaps even to the West of it, in the water. You'll want to form a short line from the Western to the Southern edge of the level, as the Scorpions will swarm on you, and occasionally so will the Bats. The Bats have a more complex behavior: They spawn at night, rally to some point outside their cave (on the same turn), then attack, and finally return their cave for the day. Be careful not to expose wounded units, as while they're just L1 bats, they're very mobile.

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 * Most of the villages are on land - and you do need them (see below).
 * Land-based units actually *like* fords - much better than sand. They'll get full movement speed and 40% instead of 30% defense. So you need to decide whether to fall back to the deep water - where you're really pressed to the edge and give up on villages - or try to maneuver so that you defend from the shallow-water-ford hexes, and form a line so that the wolves are stuck on the sand.
-* There's treasure in the East... a pond on the Eastern edge of the level has a Storm Trident sticking out into the air. And close to that pond, down South, you have a pair of wild Wolves which will not wait until turn 2 to be active, like the enemy recruits.
+* There's treasure in the East... a pond on the Eastern edge of the level has a Storm Trident sticking out into the air. And close to that pond, down South, you have a pair of Wild Wolves who will not wait until turn 2 to be active, like the enemy recruits.
-You should probably head north after recruiting about a castle-full (in addition to your Loyals). Try to lure some of the wolves towards you into the shallow water beyond the ford, but not all of them. If the wolves come in too big of a pack, you can split them up by sending Citizens (and a bat if you have one) off in another direction, not going too far but also being careful not to risk being overrun.
+You should probably head north after recruiting about a castle-full (in addition to your loyal units). Try to lure some of the wolves towards you into the shallow water beyond the ford, but not all of them. If the wolves come in too big of a pack, you can split them up by sending Citizens (and a bat if you have one) off in another direction, not going too far but also being careful not to risk being overrun.
 You really should have a second Priestess here, or level a Mermaid Initiate up immediately, if you haven't already. Leveling Netcasters and perhaps another Priestess and/or an Enchantress is also possible. You'll want a bunch of both.

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 * There's treasure in the East... a pond on the Eastern edge of the level has a Storm Trident sticking out into the air. And close to that pond, down South, you have a pair of wild Wolves which will not wait until turn 2 to be active, like the enemy recruits.
-You should probably head north after recruiting about a castleful (in addition to your loyals). Try to lure some of the wolves towards you into the shallow water beyond the ford, but not all of them. If the wolves come in too big of a pack, you can split them up by sending Citizens (and a bat if you have one) off in another direction, not going too far but also being careful not to risk being overrun.
+You should probably head north after recruiting about a castle-full (in addition to your Loyals). Try to lure some of the wolves towards you into the shallow water beyond the ford, but not all of them. If the wolves come in too big of a pack, you can split them up by sending Citizens (and a bat if you have one) off in another direction, not going too far but also being careful not to risk being overrun.
-You really should have a second Priestess here, or level an Mermaid Initiate up immediately, if you haven't already. Leveling Netcasters and perhaps another Priestess and/or an Enchantress is also possible. You'll want a bunch of both.
+You really should have a second Priestess here, or level a Mermaid Initiate up immediately, if you haven't already. Leveling Netcasters and perhaps another Priestess and/or an Enchantress is also possible. You'll want a bunch of both.
-When you can safely get to the Storm Trident pond (don't be too hastly), a fighter would be a wise choice of a bearer for it: They have high HP; this doesn't replace an existing (and invaluable) ranged attack for the unit; and you get to make "piercer-only" unit have another attack type which works well on the bony Undead. With the trident, your Fighter will level quickly; when you get him to Level 3, make him Triton, not a Hoplite: He will be more of a offensive than a defensive unit, plus - Tritons choose between a Pierce and a Blade melee attack, and Skeletons are a bit less resistant to blades.
+When you can safely get to the Storm Trident pond (don't be too hasty), a fighter would be a wise choice of a bearer for it: They have high HP; this doesn't replace an existing (and invaluable) ranged attack for the unit; and you get to make "piercer-only" unit have another attack type which works well on the bony Undead. With the trident, your Fighter will level quickly; when you get him to Level 3, make him a Triton, not a Hoplite: He will be more of an offensive than a defensive unit, plus - Tritons choose between a Pierce and a Blade melee attack, and Skeletons are a bit less resistant to blades.
 Money is useful going into the next scenario, but it's hard to make a buck in this one... Scrounge every gold piece you can by starting with mostly level 1's (and 0's) and taking villages when you can manage it.
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 What about the prospect of rushing the enemy leader? This could be possible in theory, coming up North through the safer Western edge while the wolves are none the wiser. However, the experience gained on this level may be important (if you haven't fought your way through enemy leaders in the previous scenario).
-'''scorchgeek''': I actually had great success with a leader-rush tactic. I recalled a Spearman and an Enchantress and sent them Southeast to kill the wild Wolves, then recruited three citizens and also sent them in that direction. Then I recalled a couple more L2 units and sent them Northwest with the starting units to the very edge of the map. All of the wolves then charged South, whereupon I sacrificed the citizens (keeping them in the water to slow down the wolves) and sent the valuable units West, out of their reach. At this point I had three turns to sweep in and take out the leader before they could get back North (which occurs by turn 8), giving me a nice 285 gold to start the next scenario with. The only downsides were that I didn't get a chance to get the storm trident and that I had only 6 L2 and L3 units for the next scenario (but I did level nearly that many in the next scenario, as it was relatively easy with that amount of gold).
+'''scorchgeek''': I actually had great success with a leader-rush tactic. I recalled a Spearman and an Enchantress and sent them Southeast to kill the Wild Wolves, then recruited three citizens and also sent them in that direction. Then I recalled a couple more L2 units and sent them Northwest with the starting units to the very edge of the map. All of the wolves then charged South, whereupon I sacrificed the citizens (keeping them in the water to slow down the wolves) and sent the valuable units West, out of their reach. At this point I had three turns to sweep in and take out the leader before they could get back North (which occurs by turn 8), giving me a nice 285 gold to start the next scenario with. The only downsides were that I didn't get a chance to get the storm trident and that I had only 6 L2 and L3 units for the next scenario (but I did level nearly that many in the next scenario, as it was relatively easy with that amount of gold).
-'''nuorc''': I gave the trident to Krellis, although I had to be careful about the right timig so he didn't get chewed up. After that he had a ranged attack (unlike before), and he either killed enemies helping levelling him, or he softened up the opponent helping levelling my other units, both being great with the leadership ability.
+'''nuorc''': I gave the trident to Krellis, although I had to be careful about the right timing so he didn't get chewed up. After that he had a ranged attack (unlike before), and he either killed enemies helping to level him, or he softened up the opponent helping to level my other units, both being great with the leadership ability.
 === Slavers ===

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 This scenario is tricky.  Mastering a winning strategy may take you a few attempts; but ultimately, it's not as hard as it looks.
-A key feature of this scenario is that when the Undead capture any village, Walking Corpses spawn. (Soulless spawn on Difficult.) In light of this, you have two possible strategies, with which players have had success:
+Your home castle - representing the Mermen city of Jotha - is in the middle of a bay - some sandy patches, some deeper and some shallow water, and quite a few villages. For this scenario, you have a single assailant coming in from the South-East edge of the map. But - it's not just the forces he commands: A key feature of this scenario is that when the Undead capture any village, Walking Corpses Soulless (on Easy / Challenging respectively) spawn. In light of this, you have two possible strategies, with which players have had success:
 # '''General Motors (mass production)'''. Your basic strategy should be to take and hold as many villages as possible, both to prevent the spawning and boost your income.  If you don't let many villages fall into enemy hands, eventually your income and resulting troop churn-out will be overwhelming.  First turn, recruit a mix of level 1's and Citizens.  Send a couple level 1's south to capture and protect villages there and send the Citizens in all directions to snatch up villages.  Concentrate on keeping Cylanna and Gwabbo safe; you can take tremendous losses of other units and still win. By day, swarm your Citizens around isolated enemy units, similar to Bats.

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 It's the last scenario. Losses of loyal units are acceptable. Also, you are relieved of the responsibility of protecting Cylanna. And you gain a loyal diviner, the Kai's grandmother, Tyegëa.
-Your minimum gold is 300, but this is likely insufficient, so hopefully you have a good carryover from the previous scenarios, so that your total gold coming into this final showdown is at least about 500 or 600. Recruit one batch of Merman Citizens to capture villages. Recruit Brawlers next, who are good for bashing skeleton types, doubly so when the Brawlers are supported by leadership. Pace your main recruitment to end by turn 5 or 6. Diviners and Priestesses are especially useful in this scenario, to kill Bats and arcane-susceptible undead, as well as to heal your main force. Remember that you now have the ability to recruit Priestesses, which will come in handy if you don't already have a stockpile of them to recall.
+Your minimum gold is 300, but this is likely insufficient, so hopefully you have a good carryover from the previous scenarios, so that your total gold coming into this final showdown is at least about 500 or 600. Recruit one batch of Merman Citizens to capture villages. Recruit Brawlers next, who are good for bashing skeleton types, doubly so when the Brawlers are supported by leadership. Pace your main recruitment to end by turn 5 or 6. Diviners and Priestesses are especially useful in this scenario, to kill Bats and arcane-susceptible Undead, as well as to heal your main force. Remember that you now have the ability to recruit Priestesses, which will come in handy if you don't already have a stockpile of them to recall.
 You must kill all the enemy leaders. The choice of which enemy leader to kill first is easy. The enemy leader at southeast is protected by terrain that is nasty to Mermen. Therefore, the bulk of your force should head to the island in the middle. Send only a few Citizens to collect villages in the east. The four toughies at the northwest strait will not bother you if you do not go near them, so steer clear. The middle leader may dart out if you present him with an easy kill. Try to take him down then, as he is tougher in the middle of the island, protected by his recruits. After killing the middle leader, the rest should be downhill. However, keep an eye on the location of the Shadows recruited by the southeast leader, so that they do not surprise you at night. To protect the wounded, stay in line formation whenever Shadows threaten.
-Give great respect to the undead at night, backing off and foregoing attacks. By day, wail on them mercilessly.
+Give great respect to the Undead at night, backing off and foregoing attacks. By day, wail on them mercilessly.
-Use your halos (illumination and leadership.) They are key. Hopefully, Keshan is both alive and a Flameheart, for its leadership bonus.
+Use your halos effects (Illumination and Leadership) - they are key to fending off larger number of units or mounting a inescapable defense at night. Hopefully, Keshan is both alive and a Flameheart - its leadership bonus will be useful.
 A few final tips:
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 * The pile of skeleton bones in the West has a special object, the Ankh Necklace, that will provide the wearer with 70% resistance to arcane damage. A good bearer is an Entangler like Gwabbo, who can then slow enemy necromancers with relative impunity.
-* If you didn't win the ring of strength on the [[#Flight|Flight]] scenario, now is your chance. After killing Mel Daveth, he drops the ring, which "increases the damage of all its owner's attacks by one, and adds three hitpoints." Inky or Krellis would be a good choice of bearer.
+* If you didn't win the ring of strength on the [[#Flight|Flight]] scenario, now is your chance. After killing Mel Daveth, he drops the ring, which "increases the damage of all its owner's attacks by one, and adds three hit-points." Inky or Krellis would be a good choice of bearer.
-* On turn 10, a squad of Dark Adepts (easy) or Necromancers (difficult) arrives on the northern beach. For this reason, your attack on the central island should veer towards the northwest. This way, you can cut them down in daylight with Brawlers backed by leadership.
+* On turn 10, a squad of Dark Adepts (Easy) or Necromancers (Challenging) arrives on the northern beach. For this reason, your attack on the central island should veer towards the northwest. This way, you can cut them down in daylight with Brawlers backed by leadership.
 [Inky, 1.12 / Difficult]: The enemy leaders do not begin recruiting until turn 2, and it is possible to rush and kill the central leader early on before he gets the chance to spend most of his gold. Recall your best veterans at the beginning and send everyone as far northeast as they can go. The central leader can be lured out as early as turn 4 by putting a melee only unit like a brawler in his range. For recruits I would recommend a mix of priestesses and initiates; I would not bother with citizens or village grabbing, though this is a matter of personal style.

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 You have piercing-attack Mermen to fight pierce-resistant Undead. What to do?
-Fortunately, for this campaign you are given access to a special impact-focused unit: the '''Merman Brawler''', which is an advancement of Merman Citizen, the peasants of the Mermen. Spamming Citizens and promoting them to Brawler is one way to play the campaign; and Brawlers backed by leadership can be especially deadly. The Brawlers have a very interesting tail attacks with the ''stun'' effect: A unit hit by this attack loses its Zone-of-Control for the rest of the your turn. With the Undead's low impact resistance, this can allow for skirmishing attacks against an unsuspecting, vulnerable enemy unit, or traversal of "roadblocks".
+Fortunately, for this campaign you are given access to a special impact-focused unit: the '''Merman Brawler''', which is an advancement of Merman Citizen, the peasants of the Mermen. Spamming Citizens and promoting them to Brawler is one way to play the campaign; and Brawlers backed by leadership can be especially deadly. The Brawlers have a very interesting tail attacks with the ''stun'' effect: A unit hit by this attack loses its Zone-of-Control for the rest of the your turn. With the Undead's low impact resistance, this can allow for skirmishing attacks against an unsuspecting, vulnerable enemy unit, traversal of "roadblocks", or the positioning of units in better-defensible terrain. (Of course, moving behind the enemy line is dangerous, so don't go skirmishing irresponsibly.)
-Alternatively or in addition to Brawlers, you could focus on the vanilla Merman units which have non-pierce attacks: '''Netcasters and Priestesses''', and to a lesser extent, Enchantresses. Netcasters are not immediately recruitable - you have to recruit Hunters and carefully, but decisively, build up their experience: When they level, their piercing attack becomes Impact-type, and their nets also *slow*s which is useful not just in combat but also for evening up the movement costs on land with an Undead assailant. Many scenarios benefit from having at least two healer units, so you should also promote an Initiate or two (or three) to Priestess early on, to supplement your starting Priestess, Cylanna. She's worth "investing" experience in for promotion to Diviner (Level 3), as which she provides the illumination effect.
+Alternatively, or in addition to Brawlers, you could focus on the vanilla Merman units which have non-pierce attacks: The '''Netcaster''' and the '''Priestess''', and to a lesser extent, Enchantresses.
-Fighters/Warriors and Spearmen are less useful in this campaign, but you will not always be fighting only Undead, so groom a few on your roster "just in case." Also, magic in various forms may change a unit's attack type.
+Netcasters are not immediately recruitable - you have to recruit Hunters, whose damage type is Pierce... you'll have to carefully, but decisively, build up their experience: When they level, not only does their damage type change to Impact (both for ranged and melee), but they also gain the *Slow* effect when attacking from a range, which is incredibly useful: It balances out the day/night cycle advantage of the Undead (damage per attack drops by 50%), as well as their movement advantage on land over the fishy Mermen (50% movement point drop).
 ====Other advice====