Liberty

Footpads are the core unit for this campaign. High defense, mixed attacks, and low cost makes them handy in all events. You get Harper, a loyal Footpad in all scenarios, and assume the role of Baldras, a Bandit; level these up, plus any others you recruit with good traits.

Notice that, during the first two scenarios of this campaign, your units will not be exactly Footpads, Thugs and Poachers. They will be instead Peasant Youths, Villagers and Peasant Hunters. The main difference of these counterparts is that they have a neutral alignment, so you need to adjust your strategies accordingly in case you're accustomed to the Time of Day cycle for chaotic units. From the third scenario onwards, your army will become regular (chaotic) units.

The main problem in this campaign is finding units to deal damage; Footpads are great for swarming and pinning enemies, but even swarming an enemy from all sides they might take less than half its HP off in one turn. None of your L1 units cause much damage. It's important to level up a couple each of Thugs and Poachers; you then use these as first strike against an enemy unit, followed by the Footpad swarm to finish them off or at least pin them so you can finish them next turn. In particular, you want a Huntsman by scenario 7 so you have decent marksman damage for busting enemy commanders.

The Raid

• Objectives: Defeat the goblins
• Lose if: The goblins reach the village or Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
• Turns: 24/18/14 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras, Harper and other bandits

You have enough troops to beat the goblins in a straight-up fight; your problem is luring the leader to attack you rather than running straight up the board and into the town of Dallben (if this happens you lose!). This means you need to dangle some units in his engagement range. Using Footpads for this purpose is a good idea, given their high defense.

Running Harper and one other Footpad north works well. Provided the other draws the goblin leader off of his run north, Harper can then either join in fighting him, or complete the run north, where you get a couple of thugs for free (3 on Easy) and return with them, depending on how far north you get before he breaks his run. These guards will show up if the enemy gets too close to Dallben anyway, but since the goblins will try very aggressively to get into town, it's better to support them with extra footpads to keep them out.

If you look closely at hex 1.10, there is a castle tile with a little backpack on it. If you move Harper there, he will get "a bag for holding more rocks", giving him +1 ranged damage permanently.

Civil Disobedience

• Objectives: Defeat the army captain
• Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
• Turns: 14/13/12 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper

Bunch up all your fighters and use them to swarm single or paired cavalry units. Use houses for cover. Remember to keep recruiting in those early turns, even if you have to forgo attacking enemies from good cover to make the space for the recruit to stand.

Poachers are useful for getting damage into the enemy cavalry and have decent defense when in your castle or in villages, and then use footpads to take positions in the open (they have good defense in the open) to wrap around enemy units. Ideally you want the enemy to wrap cavalry around units in your keep, and you then wrap around the ones behind your keep with Poachers and Footpads.

The enemy commander is a tough fight, since he has good melee and ranged attacks he will stay in his keep until you put a unit within his movement range, but from that point on he will move freely, so don't put harper in his reach as you approach. The best way to take him down is encircling him with poachers.

At hex 31.14, right under the windmill marked "Baldras' Farm", there is a little mace icon on a castle tile. If you move Baldras over this tile he will get a permanent +1 to damage.

The last line of dialogue in this scenario is "yes, we're outlaws", and fittingly, from now on all of your units are chaotic and have the usual bandit unit names.

A Strategy of Hope

• Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Baldras, Harper or Relana die or time runs out
• Turns: 35/30/25 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper

Your allies are surprisingly effective and can pretty much handle the saurians on their own, so focus most of your attention on the orcs and just send a few units to accompany your ally against the saurians and steal some kills when possible. It's tempting to send a bunch of footpads around to steal villages, but you might be better off just recruiting mostly thugs and poachers and trying to take out the enemy leaders ASAP for the early finish bonus.

Notice that, after the stark realization reached by Baldras at the end of the previous scenario, your army has turned now into standard chaotic units (Footpads, Thugs, etc.). But Relana hasn't gone full outlaw and killed any human soldiers yet, so she and her troops are still neutral.

At hex 5.28, in the southwest corner, there is a pitcher which will give Harper +1 hp permanently.

Unlawful Orders

• Objectives: Defeat Asheviere's general
• Lose if: Baldras, Harper or Lord Maddock die or time runs out
• Turns: 30/22/16 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper

Detach two Footpads to grab villages, one in the town (Lord Maddock isn't going to use them all anyway) and one to the north. Move your commander onto Lord Maddock's keep at the first chance you get, so you can recruit more and closer to the action.

Lord Maddock's throws his troops away early. Your force should be a few Thugs, a couple of Footpads and perhaps 2 Poachers to hold the south bank of the island; let the enemy come to you here and fight from in the water. Then send an Outlaw and Footpad strike force out the east gate and down, which will swarm enemy stragglers and late recruits and then hit the enemy commander.

Hide and Seek

• Objectives: Get Baldras to the signpost (preferably without being seen)
• Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
• Turns: 34/30/26 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper
• Other: You will be seen if you end your turn within visual range of an enemy unit

The moment you get within visual range of an enemy it will attack and all the other enemies wake up also. What saves you is that Harper can see farther than they can. Don't run ahead with him, you need Baldras to the exit point; Harper scouts the way, he follows.

The safe route is south-east, using Harper to eye a way between the soldiers. Head between some others through some mountains and head all the way across to the east edge of the map. Then head south through a lake and then southeast until above the exit and down. Also avoid the temptation to grab a village. This will trigger an attack even when not in range of a soldier.

If you still need to level either Harper or Baldras, go ahead and kill one or two of the soldiers when you are right near the signpost.

The Grey Woods

• Objectives: Defeat the Lich and the other two enemy leaders
• Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
• Turns: 50/44/42 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper

This is a fairly straightforward search-and destroy, with lots of relatively weak undead so lots of leveling-up opportunities. Grab Helicrom's villages, he starts with a ton of gold anyway. The bad guys are at the southeast, southwest and northeast corners.

Helicrom's troops will help you soaking much of the damage from the enemies, and then you can move on your troops to take the final blows. The first enemy your joined army will encounter is probably the Necromancer at the southwest. You may send a couple of Footpads/Outlaws there to maybe sneak some XP, and to scout and grab villages below, on the southwest corner. Your main force, Footpads plus a few Thugs/Bandits should head northeast and have a quick fight with the second Necromancer and its troops. After you're finished with him, head south to the final enemy, a Lich.

This map is an excellent place to level up some Footpads to L2 or even L3. Just keep in mind that your allies will have no problem stealing away some of your XP, so try to finish off your enemies as quick as possible.

At the end, you will be asked to choose between three different "prizes" from Helicrom:

1. 500 gold
2. The ability to recruit Thieves, Rogue Mages and Shadow Mages (the last two being specific to this campaign)
3. Have Helicrom's army as an ally for the final battle

Of these, the gold is probably the least favorable one (unless you're really tight on money by this point, which is not very likely). The better choice between the new recruits, or the reinforcements for the final battle depends on your playing style. On easy, the choice is probably not very important, but on harder difficulties, the third choice will make the final battle much more manageable. On the other hand, the new units provide an interesting tactical challenge: Shadow Mages (level 2) and Shadow Lords (level 3) have ranged-cold, magical attacks, and the leadership trait.

If you want the challenge, the second option may provide you with the most fun. Otherwise, the third option will make the final scenario significantly easier.

The Hunters

• Objectives: Defeat all the enemy forces
• Lose if: Baldras or Harper die or time runs out
• Turns: 36/31/26 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper

The trick in this one is that your Outlaws fight better in mountains than Heavy Infantry do. So bean them with missile weapons from the mountains at the north edge of the road, then clump your guys and go west towards the keep. Swarm the cavalry units as they hit you; they probably won't concentrate enough to be more than a nuisance to L2 and L3 characters.

[Comments by Bumblebee] Another trick is that Outlaws are good in the forest, and enemies from the castle have a long way to go before they reach it, so they don't reach the forest together. After Heavy Infantry platoon is taken care of, prepare to meat the first wave of attackers in the forest (some Trappers or Poachers with pierce attack are helpful, Shadow Mages are surprisingly effective too). Send few quick units to the north to take villages. In my game at medium, two Footpads and a watchman were enough to draw two riders to the north, trap them on the narrow forest road for several turns and finally kill them (there are villages to heal in and plenty of space to retreat). As soon as enemies of the first wave have found their eternal home in the forest, counterattack. Take villages, protect wounded, swarm in the dark. Don't recruit too many units in this mission because you will need money for the next one.

Glory

• Objectives: Destroy all four towers
• Lose if: Baldras or Harper die, or time runs out
• Turns: ??/34/?? (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Baldras and Harper, possibly Helicrom
• Other: Move a unit onto each of the trap door to destroy a tower

The Wesnothian army is tough to beat if you have to try to take them on inside their fortress - and they get reinforcements every afternoon. You have to lure as many as possible out of the fortress -- dangle bait just within their engagement range. It's the final scenario, so don't worry about money, just recall all your L2 and L3 recalls and recruit until you are out of gold.

If you chose to have Helicrom join you in battle, he will be auto-recalled for you, and you will be able to recall and recruit his Shadow Mages. (In earlier versions they would be a separate, allied faction.)

March your troops straight North and hang out around the first village there. It will be a nice pitched battle for a few turns, but eventually your numbers will overwhelm them. Then you can split your forces a bit to the west and south entrances. Remember that your Outlaws and above fight a lot better in the mountains than your opponents (offsetting the garrison bonus).

On Turn 8 (on Medium difficulty) , Lord Maddock's son, Gwydion, will appear in a Northwestern castle. He will send in 8-9 mounted units, Lancers or Knights on Medium difficulty, which will proceed to attack. Unfortunately, equestrian tactics don't seem to be one of Elensfar's strong points, and their riders will just make a headstrong charge, which will fail to defeat the defenders. They will shake things up a lot, kill a bunch of units, and create openings for you to sneak in your quick units.

Remember: It's the trap doors that matter, not defeating enemy units.

Once you've reached all 4 trap doors (not necessarily at once), you have two more turns to survive before the fortress collapses and the scenario is won; make sure to keep Baldras and Harper alive and make sure they're out of the fortress' perimeter when it collapses.

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[Comments by cph] At hard, I played it a bit differently. Helicrom's units throw themselves at the south gate and clog it for a day or so; the riders attack the west gate and tie up the enemy there. So I marched my entire force into the woods southwest of the fortress; once both gates were clogged by the allies, I moved my forces closer to both gates, and then lunged into the fortress with all the Footpads, Outlaws and Fugitives I could fit in. Fugitives on good defensive tiles are great for holding the flanks of the thrust, and Footpads are expendable. Bash away throughout the night on all the enemies you can, moving as much as you can into the fortress; seize the central fort with outlaws, and rush Footpads to the 4 towers as soon as you get an opening. The orcs went down the east side of the level, so they ran straight into the reinforcements, and I didn't have to fight either.

[Comments by Bumblebee] A different strategy is to avoid direct fight as much as possible and remember you lead guerilla fighters. Recall all quick L2 and L3 units (with at least 6 or 7 moves per turn), recall all quick L1 Footpads, some poachers and a couple of Thieves or Rogues are helpful too. Spend the first day taking villages and moving your forces, let riders and orcs kill some defenders. Don't send too many units on eastern flank, or they will lure orcs, and orcs will fight mostly you instead of garrison. When army reinforces arrive, retreat if they notice you. Kill pursuers one by one. Let reinforces meet orcs.

Meanwhile, put quick units near every tower. Southern, western and northern sides of the fortress are relatively safe for that. Don't put units too close to bridges and entrances, or they will draw defenders' attention. Let riders and orcs fight and lure enemy forces away from the towers. When a tower is empty for a moment, sneak into it. Quick Footpads can reach entrance to catacombs from outside in one turn if way is free. When riders and orcs are dead, simulate night attacks on the bridge opposite to the towers you want to take. I had to sacrifice some units at the southern bridge before guards left one of the northern towers. I finished at turn 16 at medium.

[Comments by KingElk] Similar to bumblebee, but more specific. This worked on normal difficulty, I'm not sure if it would work on hard. First, recall any Outlaws/Fugitives, or Rangers (I had one ranger (L3 Poacher) and it came in handy fending some of the enemies off, and it is fast.) As the above states, any units with 6/7 moves per turn. Do NOT recall anything else, even if its L3. After, with any leftover gold, recruit Outlaws until you are out of money. Move your entire army (and leader) along the dead west part of the map, until you reach the west entrance. Do NOT fight the army coming from the south gate. They might get a few shots at you but you will beat the scenario before they swing around their main army to trap you in the west (your northwest ally will fend them off for 3+ turns). Split your Outlaws and send 3-5 to the north gate, and the remaining shoved into the west gate. You will probably meet resistance in the west, but the only entrance you need to reach from the west gate is the southwest one. From the north, split again and attempt to reach the northwest and northeast objectives in one turn if possible. As a bonus, if your Outlaw has one extra movement point when it takes an objective, it still has that after and can move onto a castle for 70% defense. The southwest objective can be taken by pushing through the west gate. After those three are down, squeeze some Outlaws from the north or west to the southeast, at any cost. In all likelihood, the northeast Outlaw will have little resistance because of the orc/human fighting. Your leader can head northwest to the corner of the map for safety, don't use him for fighting. NOTE: You don't need the extra ally that was offered earlier in the campaign, or the extra gold. I made the mistake of getting Rogue Mages, but it didn't matter.

[Comments by Hipparchos] Similar to KingElk, but even faster in my experience: recall/recruit all quick troops then it's "student body left" as you march north along the west side of the map. Hugging the edge isn't necessary (and slows you down a bit), just stay about 4 hexes away from the city walls and you won't attract any defenders (which is what you want). Avoid all enemy contact and combat, and ignore villages, as your goal is the NORTH gate! You must accept Helicrom's help, then fall in behind his lines as his horsemen attack the city and attract the guards away from the western walls while the orcs attract the guards away from the eastern walls. I also send a single sacrificial unit east to distract and delay the Wesnoth reinforcements. And sometimes the west gate is left unguarded for a turn, so it's a good idea to drop off an outlaw nearby to exploit that. By the time you're at the north gate, it should be unguarded. The city is fast-moving pavement, so you should be able to rush enough units in through the north gate to take all four towers in one or two turns. The game's AI makes the enemy seek out weaker units to attack, which means they will mostly leave you alone as you take their rear. The entire scenario takes me 12 turns this way at normal difficulty.