SonOfThe BlackEye - Revision history

Mal Shubertal: /* The Human Attack */

2022-12-21T19:31:40Z

‎The Human Attack

Mal Shubertal: /* The Coward */

2022-12-16T22:19:18Z

‎The Coward

Mal Shubertal: /* Clash of Armies */

2022-12-16T17:44:41Z

‎Clash of Armies

Mal Shubertal: /* Civil War */

2022-12-16T15:56:44Z

‎Civil War

Mal Shubertal: /* Clash of Armies */

2022-12-16T15:35:42Z

‎Clash of Armies

Mal Shubertal: /* Back Home */

2022-12-11T23:09:05Z

‎Back Home

Mal Shubertal: /* The Dwarvish Stand */

2022-12-11T17:13:41Z

‎The Dwarvish Stand

Mal Shubertal: /* Giving Some Back */

2022-12-11T15:06:39Z

‎Giving Some Back

Mal Shubertal: /* Clash of Armies */

2022-12-11T03:04:51Z

‎Clash of Armies

Mal Shubertal: /* Saving Inarix */

2022-12-07T19:34:56Z

‎Saving Inarix

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:31, 21 December 2022
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	You have two main options. Your first option is to punch down the middle, lure Earl Lanbec'h out of his keep, and kill him. The early finish bonus is massive and will help beat the final scenario. Your alternative option is to be defensive and try to last to the end of turns. Even then, you might wish to be aggressive initially while time of day is in your favor, and run like hell at daylight. You should send some fast units to liberate villages from your allies and then grab villages in the south. You will need gold for the final scenario, so stop recruiting several turns before the end. On nightmare difficulty, shoot for 100 carryover gold.		You have two main options. Your first option is to punch down the middle, lure Earl Lanbec'h out of his keep, and kill him. The early finish bonus is massive and will help beat the final scenario. Your alternative option is to be defensive and try to last to the end of turns. Even then, you might wish to be aggressive initially while time of day is in your favor, and run like hell at daylight. You should send some fast units to liberate villages from your allies and then grab villages in the south. You will need gold for the final scenario, so stop recruiting several turns before the end. On nightmare difficulty, shoot for 100 carryover gold.
		+
		+	[Mal Shubertal]: As of 1.16, Earl Lanbec'h is smart enough to stick in his keep until the very end, so you have to work a bit harder for the early finish, but it is still possible if you have a strong force of level 3 units and accept major losses. For example, I lost 7 lvl 3 trolls on this scenario, but considered it a fair trade-off because I ended with 341 carryover gold. If you're doing the 'punch down the middle' strategy, it can be smart to keep pressing the attack even during daylight, because a delay of even a few turns can bring him a huge number of reinforcements.

	Note: If your turn limit is 30, then you are playing an older version of the scenario. Most of the advice here still applies.		Note: If your turn limit is 30, then you are playing an older version of the scenario. Most of the advice here still applies.

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:19, 16 December 2022
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	Note: if you start the scenario without a keep, then you're in an older version of this scenario. Secure a keep and start recruiting Whelps and Assassins.		Note: if you start the scenario without a keep, then you're in an older version of this scenario. Secure a keep and start recruiting Whelps and Assassins.
		+
		+	[Mal Shubertal]: An all-troll strategy worked for me on this scenario. Recall some of your resilient and/or fearless lvl 3 trolls and a swarm of whelps with the rest of your gold. Establish a long defensive line near your starting keep, weaken enemies with your lvl 3's and feed xp to the grunts, rotate back to heal and play somewhat passively during the night when your enemy's damage is greatest, and the pure weight of regeneration will win you the battle of attrition. Kapoue can run back and forth bethind your lines adding leadership to all of your whelps' attacks. It helps that the nearby enemies recruit mostly lvl 1 fodder which arrive several turns before the lvl 2's from the far keep, so you can hopefully level a couple whelps before the main enemy even reaches your lines.

	=== The Human Attack ===		=== The Human Attack ===

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 In order to beat this scenario with a lot of gold carryover, you must minimize your upkeep, which means recruiting only the minimum necessary units. To minimize the units needed to hold the bridge, you can use 2 very passive lvl 3 trolls. The enemy will never willingly retreat with a weak unit to make space for a stronger one, so if a relatively weak ranged unit like an elvish rider or a bowman gets into the water to attack one of your trolls, the best strategy can be to NOT attack it at all. As long as it survives, it will just keep shooting you for pitiful damage turn after turn, which your troll will regenerate, and it will block any of the more powerful units from reaching your lines indefinitely. You can make this strategy even better by not occupying the southern-most castle tile on your side of the bridge. That castle tile can be attacked from 3 sides, which will tax the regeneration and hp of even a lvl 3 troll. If you let an enemy occupy it, then your trolls right and left of it can both only be attacked from a maximum of 2 tiles each (more if you count griffons and mermen, which you should!), and this combined with their regeneration should take care of this front for 10+ turns, after which you just need to rotate in 2 more lvl 3 trolls to take the place of the weakened ones. You can use lower level trolls for this too, but you have to be more careful with their hp, because if the enemies just get a very lucky turn and manage to kill one of your bridge guardians, they can swarm into the gap and your clever delaying tactic has failed.
-Because it's practically impossible to get an early finish and you get a steady stream of very aggressive but disorganized enemies, this is an ideal scenario for xp-farming, and it's important to have an idea of what tools you will need for the next section of the campaign, so you can direct all of your xp into the most useful units. Several of the next scenarios will occur on large maps with mostly frozen and mountain terrain, where quick trolls/archers will move 3 spaces while non-quick ones will move only 2, an enormous difference. Having 10 or more units of these types at lvl. 2-3 can be a game changer on scenarios like Civil War. Healers will also be critical, and this is a great time to level up at least one, ideally 2 augurs into soothsayers. Those big maps with lots of difficult terrain will also make leader assassination tactics viable, but lvl 1 wolf riders alone make extremely fragile and unreliable assassination teams, so having 2-3 goblin pillagers and at least one Direwolf Rider ready to go will allow you to form very fast and efficient assassination teams. In comparison, grunts, saurian skirmishers, assassins, and non-quick trolls and archers will give you much less utility for the xp you invest in them now.
+Because it's practically impossible to get an early finish and you get a steady stream of very aggressive but disorganized enemies, this is an ideal scenario for xp-farming, and it's important to have an idea of what tools you will need for the next section of the campaign, so you can direct all of your xp into the most useful units. Several of the next scenarios will occur on large maps with mostly frozen and mountain terrain, where quick trolls/archers will move 3 spaces while non-quick ones will move only 2, an enormous difference. Having 10 or more units of these types at lvl. 2-3 can be a game changer on Civil War, and having at least 5 quick lvl 2-3 trolls specifically is extremely helpful for Back Home. Healers will also be critical, and this is a great time to level up at least one, ideally 2 augurs into soothsayers. Those big maps with lots of difficult terrain will also make leader assassination tactics viable, but lvl 1 wolf riders alone make extremely fragile and unreliable assassination teams, so having 2-3 goblin pillagers and at least one Direwolf Rider ready to go will allow you to form very fast and efficient assassination teams. In comparison, grunts, saurian skirmishers, assassins, and non-quick trolls and archers will give you much less utility for the xp you invest in them now.
 === Giving Some Back ===

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 It is good to start this scenario with as much gold as possible. There are four enemy leaders, each perhaps with less gold than you, but together with much more; and they will recruit many L2 units, not a stream of sacrificial Grunts and Archers. And these four streams are sent immediately in Kapou'e's direction - so wherever you go with him, they will all follow. Finally, your keep is connected to theirs mostly by dirt roads surrounded by Frozen flatland - so there's no obvious terrain-advantageous defensive formation you could maintain near your initial keep against.
-Your basic strategy should likely be recruiting a sizable army, then proceeding West towards the signpost,  managing the damage and casulaties as you are assailed from two or three sides. If, however, you have enough gold, you could split your force, with the main army moving West and a smaller force going South over the mountains: These will engage a few of the South-Eastern leader's troops, so that there are few attacks from that direction, and you don't have to maintain a defensive line, just pick off a unit here and there. It may also have the time to terminate the leader himself, and perhaps the center-South leader as well, afterwards - to speed up finishing the level.
+Your basic strategy should likely be recruiting a sizable army, then proceeding West towards the signpost,  managing the damage and casulaties as you are assailed from two or three sides. If, however, you have enough gold, you could split your force, with the main army moving West and a smaller force going South over the mountains: These will engage a few of the South-Eastern leader's troops, so that there are few attacks from that direction, and you don't have to maintain a defensive line, just pick off a unit here and there. It may also have the time to terminate the leader himself, and perhaps the center-South leader as well, afterwards - to speed up finishing the level. For this southern expeditionary force, a good force composition is 2-3 goblin pillagers, 1 saurian healer, 1 Direwolf Rider, 1 Slayers, and maybe a few lvl 1 wolf riders. Keep in mind that although slayers and and other units will be helpful for taking out the initial enemies in the mountains and the southeastern leader, they will fall far behind your wolf rider units in the race for the southwestern leader, so focus on wolf rider-type units for this force.
 Without enough starting gold, this level will be an intense test of your abilities - but you should be ready for it by now after all the battles you've gone through.
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 You will rely heavily on recalled units. L3 Troll Warriors will do well; and for lack of these - Orcish Warlords. Wolf units (Direwolf Riders, Pillagers, Goblin Knights) are very useful for their mobility on the ice: They're only half as fast as usual, but so are all of your enemies. They are most useful for the Southern expeditionary force, but Pillagers may help in initial softening of units your main force is facing in unfavorable terrain. Finally, Slayers are surprisingly versatile in this scenario: They can poison enemy leaders and high-HP units (which need to retreat far in order to heal, and may not do so); they balance the Melee-heavy slant of your army; and best of all - despite their low-HP, they have *twice* the defense of other Orc units on the ice, so they aren't as flimsy as usual in relative terms. If you can recall a decent-sized bunch of them, that will allow them to rotate back and heal next to a Soothsayer (and still leave you one or two for the Southbound force). Speaking of your Saurian healers - at least one will be necessary, probably two.
 Watch the clock, as you may need to send Kapou’e running for the signpost. The turn limit is not very strict, but an Orcs+Troll entourage is slow and the level is not small.

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:35, 16 December 2022
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	In order to beat this scenario with a lot of gold carryover, you must minimize your upkeep, which means recruiting only the minimum necessary units. To minimize the units needed to hold the bridge, you can use 2 very passive lvl 3 trolls. The enemy will never willingly retreat with a weak unit to make space for a stronger one, so if a relatively weak ranged unit like an elvish rider or a bowman gets into the water to attack one of your trolls, the best strategy can be to NOT attack it at all. As long as it survives, it will just keep shooting you for pitiful damage turn after turn, which your troll will regenerate, and it will block any of the more powerful units from reaching your lines indefinitely. You can make this strategy even better by not occupying the southern-most castle tile on your side of the bridge. That castle tile can be attacked from 3 sides, which will tax the regeneration and hp of even a lvl 3 troll. If you let an enemy occupy it, then your trolls right and left of it can both only be attacked from a maximum of 2 tiles each (more if you count griffons and mermen, which you should!), and this combined with their regeneration should take care of this front for 10+ turns, after which you just need to rotate in 2 more lvl 3 trolls to take the place of the weakened ones. You can use lower level trolls for this too, but you have to be more careful with their hp, because if the enemies just get a very lucky turn and manage to kill one of your bridge guardians, they can swarm into the gap and your clever delaying tactic has failed.		In order to beat this scenario with a lot of gold carryover, you must minimize your upkeep, which means recruiting only the minimum necessary units. To minimize the units needed to hold the bridge, you can use 2 very passive lvl 3 trolls. The enemy will never willingly retreat with a weak unit to make space for a stronger one, so if a relatively weak ranged unit like an elvish rider or a bowman gets into the water to attack one of your trolls, the best strategy can be to NOT attack it at all. As long as it survives, it will just keep shooting you for pitiful damage turn after turn, which your troll will regenerate, and it will block any of the more powerful units from reaching your lines indefinitely. You can make this strategy even better by not occupying the southern-most castle tile on your side of the bridge. That castle tile can be attacked from 3 sides, which will tax the regeneration and hp of even a lvl 3 troll. If you let an enemy occupy it, then your trolls right and left of it can both only be attacked from a maximum of 2 tiles each (more if you count griffons and mermen, which you should!), and this combined with their regeneration should take care of this front for 10+ turns, after which you just need to rotate in 2 more lvl 3 trolls to take the place of the weakened ones. You can use lower level trolls for this too, but you have to be more careful with their hp, because if the enemies just get a very lucky turn and manage to kill one of your bridge guardians, they can swarm into the gap and your clever delaying tactic has failed.
		+
		+	Because it's practically impossible to get an early finish and you get a steady stream of very aggressive but disorganized enemies, this is an ideal scenario for xp-farming, and it's important to have an idea of what tools you will need for the next section of the campaign, so you can direct all of your xp into the most useful units. Several of the next scenarios will occur on large maps with mostly frozen and mountain terrain, where quick trolls/archers will move 3 spaces while non-quick ones will move only 2, an enormous difference. Having 10 or more units of these types at lvl. 2-3 can be a game changer on scenarios like Civil War. Healers will also be critical, and this is a great time to level up at least one, ideally 2 augurs into soothsayers. Those big maps with lots of difficult terrain will also make leader assassination tactics viable, but lvl 1 wolf riders alone make extremely fragile and unreliable assassination teams, so having 2-3 goblin pillagers and at least one Direwolf Rider ready to go will allow you to form very fast and efficient assassination teams. In comparison, grunts, saurian skirmishers, assassins, and non-quick trolls and archers will give you much less utility for the xp you invest in them now.

	=== Giving Some Back ===		=== Giving Some Back ===

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 You can either grab the two castle tiles near your keep or line up along the dirt road and your keep. Holding the castle tiles initially will probably require gambling with Jetto. Recalling Direwolf Riders and/or quick Warlords can also help with maintaining initial control of those hexes. If instead you choose to concede that terrain, then this has the advantage of delaying first contact with the enemy until a more orc-friendly time of day. Then you can take those castle tiles when you start advancing.
-Loyalists can dish out an intense amount of damage by day, so you will need a couple of Soothsayers.
+Loyalists can dish out an intense amount of damage by day, so you will need a couple of Soothsayers. Also note that loyalists have terrible movement in frozen. All of their non-mounted units take 3 mp to move through frozen, while your units take only 2. So you can easily pull back from their line in the daytime and then reengage at night, and they will struggle to keep up with you.
 Your orc allies will get in position (on the SE and NE corners) on turns 4 and 5, while Grüü shows up with your veteran trolls on turn 7 on the NW, ready to take control of the rest of the map. Play patiently and be careful not to leave your key units too exposed on the snow/ice.
-Keep in mind that your orcish allies must stay alive, which can be tricky since they tend to be very aggressive by default. Perhaps the best setting for your allies (right click) is to be "defensive" with no objective. This will help curb the aggressiveness of the leaders. There is a good chance that your southeast ally leader will die if neglected, so plan on sending him a unit or two.
+Keep in mind that your orcish allies must stay alive, which can be tricky since they tend to be very aggressive by default. Perhaps the best setting for your allies (right click) is to be "defensive" with no objective. This will help curb the aggressiveness of the leaders. There is a good chance that your southeast ally leader will die if neglected, so plan on sending him a unit or two. (As of 1.16.6, you no longer have the ability to give directions to your allies. The southeast leader still tends to get into trouble as he sends all his forces west and then gets overwhelmed by forces from the north. Sending him a wolf rider or two after you've taken care of the closest leader can help him hold out until you take out the others.)
-Pay attention to gold, and try to finish early, as you'll need extra gold for the next scenario. On Nightmare difficulty, shoot for at least 60 carryover gold (150 final gold.)
+Pay attention to gold, and try to finish early, as you'll need extra gold for the next scenario. On Nightmare difficulty, shoot for at least 60 carryover gold (150 final gold.) This is a huge map with very spread out villages, so the best way to get a big carryover is by finishing ASAP and keeping upkeep low.
 ===  Civil War ===

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 This scenario is not one of the most challenging of the campaign, but good strategy will be required to win on the harder difficulty levels.
-Recruit Wolf Riders and other types with lots of mobility, because just mushing through the snow to get to the enemy units will take a while. Saurians are terrible at moving through snow and ice, but recalling a Soothsayer will be worthwhile. You know all those Troll Whelps you've been spamming? Now is the time to recall your half-levelled Whelps who are quick and preferably fearless, but steer them away from plain snow and ice as much as possible. Quick Assassins and Archers are also helpful.
+Recruit Wolf Riders and other types with lots of mobility, because just mushing through the snow to get to the enemy units will take a while. Saurians are terrible at moving through snow and ice, but recalling a Soothsayer and sending it through the mountains where it moves better will be worthwhile. You know all those Troll Whelps you've been spamming? Now is the time to recall your half-levelled Whelps who are quick and preferably fearless, but steer them away from plain snow and ice as much as possible. Quick Assassins and Archers are also helpful.
 Your allies will be only too happy to distract the enemy with a suicidal charge. This will give you time to move your main force into position in the forest south of the frozen river, lining up along the southern bank. Meanwhile, send a few token troops to protect your southeast ally leader, who unfortunately also has suicidal tendancies. Although most of the enemy will fight you from ice, a couple of dwarves are bound to slip into the mountains, where they are tough adversaries. Either wait for them to descend into the forested hills or else poison them. Once the enemy's assault wave has broken, venture across the frozen river and onwards to the enemy camps.
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 You can finish faster if you sneak a Direwolf Rider around the southeast corner and up to the northeast leader. The Direwolf Rider can poison him, and maybe move on to poison the other leader as well.
 ===  Back Home ===

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 In this 32x32 level you're attacking the Human city of Dorest, from the North. You're flanked by two allied leaders - part of the Orcish horde. Dorest, for the purposes of this scenario, is an island within a moat, with its perimeter being castle tiles. Surrounding the island are a few more Village tiles. Dorest is defended by two leaders: A General, in the keep at the center of Dorest, and a Lieutenant in a keep just North of the city.
-You're going to come under heavy attack very quickly, since the defenders have deep coffers, probably much more so than you, and have plenty of L2 units to recall (maybe even L3 on Hard); many of their recruits are horse-mounted; and the secondary enemy leader's keep is in mid-level: His top-tile recruit is 12 tiles away from your own keep. Thus, by turn 3 (turn 2 if you're not careful) you'll taste their cold steel - in the full light of day, when they're at maximum advantage.
+You're going to come under heavy attack very quickly, since the defenders have deep coffers, probably much more so than you, and have plenty of L2 units to recall; many of their recruits are horse-mounted; and the secondary enemy leader's keep is in mid-level: His top-tile recruit is 12 tiles away from your own keep. Thus, by turn 3 (turn 2 if you're not careful) you'll taste their cold steel - in the full light of day, when they're at maximum advantage.
-These are not all the bad news. Dorest is apparently famous for its Fencers. Yes, you're likely to face quite a few of these swashbucklers, and it will be extra difficult: If you allow them to get near your troops, they'll always pick out the weakest; and if you intercept them before they're close, you'll be exposing yourself to many enemy units coming up from the South (and that is essentially suicide). Also, the defenders can field not only Loyalist troops, but Horsemen, Knights and Lancers. Yes, Lancers - the cruise missile of Human units: maximum movement range, 3 strikes, and a total attack damage of 96 in daytime.
+These are not all the bad news. Dorest is apparently famous for its Fencers. Yes, you're likely to face quite a few of these swashbucklers, and their lvl 2 variants, and it will be extra difficult: If you allow them to get near your troops, they'll always pick out the weakest; and if you intercept them before they're close, you'll be exposing yourself to many enemy units coming up from the South (and that is essentially suicide). Also, the defenders can field not only Loyalist troops, but Horsemen, Knights and Lancers. Yes, Lancers - the cruise missile of Human units: maximum movement range, 3 strikes, and a total attack damage of 96 in daytime.
 Oh, and just so you known - the two Human leaders have high per-turn income as well, so they can and will continue recruiting.
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 Ok, that all sounds pretty grim. What have you got going for you?
-Well, there are your allies; but they're not such a big find. You don't control them (although you kind of should, as leader of the horde, shouldn't you? Ah well, that's life); and they're kind of dumb and gung-ho. However, they will serve you rather well as Human (er, that is, Orc) shields during the first few turns. By turn 5 they're almost all gone, with the leaders retreating to their keeps and staying there. The defenders will not be smart enough to send out assassination parties after them.
+Well, there are your allies; but they're not such a big find. You don't control them (although you kind of should, as leader of the horde, shouldn't you? Ah well, that's life); and they're kind of dumb and gung-ho. However, they will serve you rather well as Human (er, that is, Orc) shields during the first few turns. The best part about them is that they come right after you and before the enemy in the turn order, so you can put your troops in exposed positions as long as your allies are close enough to jump in front of you before the enemy counterattacks. If you coordinate well, they will eat most of the initial charges this way. By turn 5 they're almost all gone, with the leaders retreating to their keeps and staying there. The defenders will not be smart enough to send out assassination parties after them.
-Your salvation is found in the Orcish horde, or more specifically: '''You will incur ''no'' upkeep for your L1 units'''. As long as you recruit L1's (and no more than a few veterans) - you'll gain the maximum possible gold per turn despite scaling up your army. Do so, with all the gold you have - focusing on the cheaper damage-sink units, especially Grunts and perhaps some Troll Whelps. Their regeneration might help, but you can expect high unit churn so the Grunt's additional damage may be a better choice. On the other hand, Troll Whelps are sometimes fearless - good in daytime combat - and their low movement is not much of a problem in this near-static confrontation. For ranged damage, you could use Orcish Archers, or play it riskier and recall some of your Slayers.
+Your salvation is found in the Orcish horde, or more specifically: '''You will incur ''no'' upkeep for your L1 units'''. As long as you recruit L1's (and no more than a few veterans) - you'll gain the maximum possible gold per turn despite scaling up your army. Do so, with all the gold you have - focusing on the cheaper damage-sink units, especially Grunts and perhaps some Troll Whelps. Their regeneration might help, but you can expect high unit churn so the Grunt's additional damage may be a better choice. On the other hand, Troll Whelps are sometimes fearless - good in daytime combat - and their low movement is not much of a problem in this near-static confrontation. For ranged damage, you could use Orcish Archers, or play it riskier and recall some of your Slayers. Slayers and assassins are especially useful for taking down fencers/duelists because of their marksmanship, poison, and the fencers' weakness to blade. Support them with Leadership for maximum effect.
 If you recruit L2 or L3 units - make sure to end your turns with them staying behind the front lines of L1 units, to prevent opportunistic attacks by Horsemen, Knights, Lancers or Duelists. Other than Slayers, you might consider a Goblin pillager to slow down a horse-mounted unit, making it less deadly; or perhaps a Soothsayer if you've gone with Grunts. Remember the effective cap on recalling will be your ability to keep the high-level units alive, not so much the upkeep.
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 * Recruit a Wolf Rider (or recall a quick one), and send it South-West and then South near the level's edge, to occupy the villages just to the West of Dorest. It might attract the attention of a mounted unit at some point; try to avoid that happening befure you get to the villages. When/if it does happen - that's not so bad, you're drawing it away from where it can be of real use.
 * Watch out for the Shock Troopers; they can cause severe damage even to your trolls.
 === The Dwarvish Stand ===

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 First of all, there is the large group of elves, loyalists, dwarves and bandits that will come from the south, trying to knock you out of the bridge. Using strong units (Trolls, Slurbows and Warlords) supported by a Saurian Augur/Soothsayer and rotating the lines should be enough to hold them in this bottleneck, though with some losses. Other than that, you need to keep two groups on the sides of the river bank to handle the additional sources of trouble: a few Gryphons coming from the western keep (mostly during the first few turns and then on rare occasion afterwards), small groups of Mermen coming every other turn from alternate sides of the map during the first half of the battle, and Galleons crossing the river with groups of three enemies every now and then. A squad for one side could consist of a Saurian to fight from the sand, a Grunt to hold villages, an Assassin or Slayer to poison units, a Crossbowman to wound Mermen and especially Gryphons, and 2 Whelps or other units for baiting and bashing Mermen. Additional units will be necessary once the Galleons start unloading.
-Kapou’e can stay in his keep, recruiting/recalling units during the battle as you see fit. You will be able to see Galleons and Gryphons from the distance, giving you some time to prepare, and the Mermen show up in a pattern that is easy to follow.
+Kapou’e can stay in his keep, recruiting/recalling units during the battle as you see fit. You will be able to see Galleons and Gryphons from the distance, giving you some time to prepare, and the Mermen show up in a pattern that is easy to follow. However, Kapoue's leadership combined with the marksmanship of your slayers and the magic attacks of your augurs can be very useful for quickly taking out stubborn mermen with 60% defense in water tiles.
-When Mermen are about to attack you, avoid occupying the castle tiles, which lets the Mermen fight from the water. Instead, lure them into the sand, where they are much more vulnerable. This will make the fighting go faster and avoids a situation where Mermen and other enemies pile up on you. When you see that the Galleons are about to disembark, ''then'' it is a good idea to occupy those castle tiles, forcing the enemy to drop their units on sand or water.
+When Mermen are about to attack you, avoid occupying the castle tiles, which lets the Mermen fight from the water. Instead, lure them into the sand or even castle tiles, where they are much more vulnerable. This will make the fighting go faster and avoids a situation where Mermen and other enemies pile up on you. When you see that the Galleons are about to disembark, ''then'' it is a good idea to occupy those castle tiles, forcing the enemy to drop their units on sand or water.
 After turn 14/18/22 (easy/medium/hard), no more Mermen will appear, and the battle will be easier to handle, with only the occasional Gryphon and the Galleons to distract you. If you manage to destroy the Galleons (which have extra hitpoints for this scenario), you will make the second half of the battle even more comfortable for yourself.
 It is not difficult to beat this scenario, due to its predictability. However, it is a challenge to beat it with lots of gold carryover, which you will need to beat the next scenario.
 === Giving Some Back ===

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 Start by recalling a group of veterans to blast through the first few elves and dwarves on the bridge, and focus on getting Kapou’e to the southern keep as quickly as possible. By then, Inarix has probably showed up, and the real battle begins.
-At the southern keep, Kapou'e will resume his recruitment, mostly with spam. You are faced with dwarves to the west and elves to the east. One conservative strategy is to form a diagonal defense line from the central keep to the northeast (for the elves). Troll Whelps and Trolls work nicely for this purpose. Keep rotating your lines so the trolls can regenerate to limit your losses. Advance quickly through the elves to get closer to the Saurians. The elvish leader only recruits level-1 units, and they are not much of a threat outside forest tiles. The dwarven leader, however, recruits Bandits, who are very aggressive and dangerous at night. Therefore, on the western front, use the high defense of the castle tiles and villages to survive the Bandits, and don't expose key units to multiple Bandits at night. A few leader-supported Archers and Assassins can help deal with the Bandits, while Warlords and leader-supported Grunts/Warriors can dispatch the Thunderers.
+At the southern keep, Kapou'e will resume his recruitment, mostly with spam. Note that there are also 2 small keeps on the southern edge of the bridge where Kapoue can recruit if he can't reach the main southern keep. You are faced with dwarves to the west and elves to the east. One conservative strategy is to form a diagonal defense line from the central keep to the northeast (for the elves). Troll Whelps and Trolls work nicely for this purpose. Keep rotating your lines so the trolls can regenerate to limit your losses. Advance quickly through the elves to get closer to the Saurians. The elvish leader only recruits level-1 units, and they are not much of a threat outside forest tiles. The dwarven leader, however, recruits Bandits, who are very aggressive and dangerous at night. Therefore, on the western front, use the high defense of the castle tiles and villages to survive the Bandits, and don't expose key units to multiple Bandits at night. A few leader-supported Archers and Assassins can help deal with the Bandits, while Warlords and leader-supported Grunts/Warriors can dispatch the Thunderers.
-Meanwhile, Inarix should be on his way to the action. Use the swamps if possible for the high defense or even try to lure your attackers into it. However, focus on moving the saurians northwards and do not waste time. Note that the enemy will target Inarix, so keep him relatively protected. On the easiest difficulty level, you can build a formation with the healers in the middle and try to run up the center. Try to give the final blows to the Augurs so they level up quickly into Soothsayers (finally, healers!) On the hardest difficulty level, there will be so many enemy units that the Augers likely will become ZOC-locked. In that case, treat the Augers as already dead, using them as bait for the enemy, and they can blast a single hole in the enemy line for your Skirmishers to slither through. Have Kapou'e recruit or recall Wolf Rider line units to screen the surviving Saurians once they are close to your main force.
+Meanwhile, Inarix should be on his way to the action. Use the swamps if possible for the high defense or even try to lure your attackers into it. However, focus on moving the saurians northwards and do not waste time. Note that the enemy will target Inarix, so keep him relatively protected. On the easiest difficulty level, you can build a formation with the healers in the middle and try to run up the center. Try to give the final blows to the Augurs so they level up quickly into Soothsayers (finally, healers!) On the hardest difficulty level, there will be so many enemy units that the Augers likely will become ZOC-locked. In that case, treat the Augers as already dead, using them as bait for the enemy, and they can blast a single hole in the enemy line for your Skirmishers to slither through. Have Kapou'e recruit or recall Wolf Rider line units to screen the surviving Saurians once they are close to your main force. It can make sense to just ignore any units in your saurians' way and run straight past them for the fastest possible finish, even avoiding making any attacks so you don't take any retaliation damage.
 By the end of turn 7, the elves and dwarves will be getting low on units, but then they will just dig into their gold reserves and start heavily recruiting again. If you are really quick and concentrate on diminishing the elven attackers in turns 1 to 6, you can overrun the elves and kill their leader. That will make the rest of the scenario much easier as you will only be attacked by the dwarves. However, if you do not manage to kill the elven leader, do not worry. Just run Inarix and his group up to the north.
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 It will make the next level a little easier if you can level at least one of the Augurs to a Soothsayer. On the other hand, if you find that you cannot save Inarix and four other saurians, then remember that it is optional. You can always replay and just try to blow the bridge as fast as possible.
 ===  Clash of Armies ===