HeirToTheThrone

This is a walkthrough of Heir to the Throne, the campaign featuring Konrad.

Some of the information in this walkthrough may be outdated, as the campaign has seen some changes over the years without the respective updates of the walkthrough. It is generally valid and useful, however.

The suggestions herein are mostly based on the Medium and Hard difficulty levels. It should be possible to win on 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.

There is a subforum for providing feedback on the scenarios of this campaign, with each scenario having its individual thread, where you can post feedback, read other players' comments and sometimes get your questions answered. Note, however, that some of the posts date back to 2004... remember to mind the post dates. The scenario forum threads also have the occasional replay attached to a post (the 'replay' savegame that gets created whenever you complete a scenario).

There are also some personal walkthrough forum posts, such as Suggestions for Heir to the Throne walkthrough and Yet another "Heir to the Throne" walktrough. Finally, Ye Compleat Walkthrough to "Heir to the Throne" is a detailed guide, with illustrations and commentary, to the first six scenarios.

Warning - spoilers ahead!

Scenario 1 - The Elves Besieged

• Objective: Move Konrad to the signpost.
• Lose if: Konrad or Delfador die or turns run out.
• Turns: 16/14/12 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador.

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 by defeating all enemies, your troops should perform a skirmishing retreat westwards into the forest.

Another strategy is to send Konrad by himself west to the druid's keep and then north, while delfador and all of your elves go north over the bridge and then slant northwest. If you visualize a diagonal line going through the 2 villages that are south of the clearing in the northwest quadrant of the woods, that is to best route. You just need to post a fighter in those villages for a turn to hold off the troops from the northwest, and then your allies will fill in the gaps and you can steal a few kills while slanting over to meet Konrad as he travels up the west side of the map.

Other than getting Konrad on his way, the secondary objective you should pursue on 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 grâce.

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 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. Note that all fighter advancements get 60% defense in forests, and all archer advancements get 70%.

• 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.

Be careful and don't leave Konrad or Delfador on vulnerable positions at the end of your turns (where many enemies may be able to surround them), especially on hard difficulty, because all enemies will be particularly aggresive towards them. 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.

Early finish bonus: 32 gold per turn.

See also the forum discussion.

[AS: I disagree with some of the advice given here. In my experience, it is perfectly possible—and indeed desirable—to move Konrad with Delfador, in order to use Delfador to weaken enemies and finish them off with Konrad. Konrad is a weak level 1 unit but gets a lot stronger once he rises to level 2. In the easier difficulties, you can even kill the north-west Orc this way.

That said, this scenario isn’t great for getting experience. If you do manage to level something, I would focus on levelling a shaman into a druid; a L2 healer is a valuable asset. Sorceresses also come useful later on, though their role can be met by mages.]

Scenario 2 - Blackwater Port

• Objectives: Either
  • Resist until the end of the scenario, or..
  • Defeat the enemy leader.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Sir Kaylan die or turns run out.
• Turns: 12/12/9 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Haldiel.
• Other
  • An extra loyal Knight unit as a bonus if the enemy leader is defeated on hard.
  • You can recruit horseman units now.

The opening dialog will introduce a new friend, Haldiel, a loyal Horseman. The importance of loyalty is explained in Campaign Strategies.

Horsemen

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

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

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

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

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

There is an early finish gold 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.

If you're playing on hard and manage to kill the orc leader, you will receive a special reward: Simyr, a loyal Knight with the intelligent trait, will join your army. This might very well be worth the effort, but it will not be an easy challenge. There have been, however, reports from users who have achieved this. You need some good luck distracting most the enemies away from the keep, enough to leave an opening for a few horseman units to charge on the leader during the day (on turn 8/9) in order to finish him off.

Hint for the aim of getting the loyal knight (Anonymissimus): The wesnoth AI moves its units into the direction of the enemy *leader* during its move-to-targets phase. This can be exploited in this scenario by moving Konrad towards Kaylan's keep and leaves the field near the enemy keep open for an attack onto the leader with most of your other units. The leader can be lured out, for instance, by taking the village at 8,21 in turn 7 and moving that unit back in turn 8. Leader moves in there during his turn 8, kill him with Delfador and at least one other high damage dealer (better 3) in turn 9, so have them in range.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 3 - Isle of Alduin

• Objective: Defeat the enemy leader.
• Lose if: Konrad or Delfador die or turns run out.
• Turns: 34/24/21 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador.
• Other
  • A loyal mage named Elrian is hiding in a village near your keep.
  • After finding Elrian, you'll be able to recruit mage.

The key to victory is to control the villages, earning the gold you need to recruit or recall troops. This map has a huge number of villages, and initially they are all controlled by your opponent. So claiming as many as you can ASAP is crucial to both increasing your recruitment and slowing down your opponent's. 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. 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 forum discussion.

Scenario 4 - Bay of Pearls

• Objective: Either
  • Defeat one enemy leader, and resist the other until turns run out, or
  • Defeat all enemy leaders (early finish bonus).
• Lose if: Konrad dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 27/24/21 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad.
• Other
  • A storm trident is located on the northwest.

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 at least 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, one of them an Initiate. The latter may become a healer, try to get her experienced as soon as possible, as a merfolk healer will open up a lot of possibilities in the next scenarios. Another one is a merman Hunter, who can get a Slow attack at lvl 2 that will be very helpful with enemy leaders.

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.

None of the mermen from the southern cages have ranged attacks. The sea leader recruits several bats which are hard to kill with only melee units due to their 'drain' ability. One strategy is to free all the mermen, then quickly withdraw all the southern ones to the shore by your main army, so that your mages can clean up the bats.

Another possible mermen strategy is to free all of them from their cages, including the ones just south of the orc leader's island, then take ALL of them up past the island, skirt around the nagas' movement range, and then come down on the final cage from the NORTH. That allows you to grab the trident before the nagas have a chance to engage you, and swarming them with all of your units at once allows you to finish them off ASAP, and then you have a huge merman force to take out the orc leader on the island. The downside of this plan is that your land-based army is vulnerable to attacks from the sea, but this isn't too much of a problem because you have archers/mages to take out the bats, and the nagas are slow and have low defense once they get on land to attack you.

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). Getting close to levelling up your merman Hunter and/or Initiate can be a good idea too.

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 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.

Alternate strategy for large early finish bonus: recruit only mermen. The path to the enemy leader is blocked by difficult terrain and chokepoints by land, but is wide open by sea. Recall your merman fighter with the storm trident and your loyal initiate from Bay oF Pearls, then recruit as many merman initiates as you can afford. Have Haldiel and Konrad flee to the northwest corner of the map, avoiding all combat. Advance your armada down the eastern edge of the peninsula, staying out of range of land-based enemies. Use your disposable initiates to clear out the walking corpses and suicide attack the leader, then deliver the finishing blow with your storm trident. This strategy is a lot easier if you have a merman initiate close to lvl 2, since then it acts as a healer for your merman armada.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 5B - Isle of the Damned

• Objective: Either
  • Resist until turns run out, or
  • Defeat all enemy leaders (special bonus)
• Lose if: Konrad dies.
• Turns: 28/26/24 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delurin (an Outlaw) and two Merman Fighters
• Other
  • Thugs, Poachers and Footpads can be recruited in this scenario.
  • Moremirmu, a White Mage with a special melee attack can be found in one of the temples in the middle of the map.

Konrad is washed overboard during a storm, but is rescued by two mermen. You start out with 100 gold and cannot recall any units EXCEPT mermen. You are joined by Delurin, 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. Note that this map is actually quite small. It seems bigger than it is because the terrain is so difficult and there are so few paths that it takes a long time for your units to walk across it. But if you recruit your mermen first, they can often finish off the southern lich and then catch up to your land-based group to help with the northern one. It is hypothetically possible to actually beat this scenario with only mermen, never recruiting a single outlaw and never moving Konrad from his keep. The key to taking down liches with mermen is a LOT of sacrificial initiates, and ideally a lvl. 2 initiate healer and/or a lvl. 2 hunter with Slow from the last scenario.

The other two strategies 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.

[From a forum post by Graakhatmeksha]: Using the following strategy I have finished this scenario in only 20 turns on maximum difficulty. [version 1.14.8(6)] In the previous Bay of Pearls scenario I try to develop a merman fighter (preferably quick) with the trident, and the mermaid initiate. Then I start by recalling them and recruiting one or two quick thugs and as many footpads as I can, sending all of them north with Konrad while the original two mermen head south to grab and defend villages. Staying close to the NE coast tends to attract enough attackers that I can level both the trident guy and the initiate with easy kills. Then rush the northern lich around daybreak and eliminate him during the day (turn 9-10). By then you should have enough gold to summon a castle full of additional units, and head south through the temples with the trident and the initiate blasting now along the NW coast and helping eliminate the southern lich about turn 20-22.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 6 - The Siege of Elensefar

• Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders.
• Lose if: Konrad dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 40/32/29 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, one veteran unit (typically an elf).
• Other
  • A group of thieves/rogues join your party in the first few turns.

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. Or, you can lure out the orcs into the water or on the plain in front of the city. Remember that mermen move quickly and defend quite well in water or on the bridges. You can also play most of the scenario on your side of the river, using your starting castle and the forests to give you a terrain advantage, then rush through the mostly empty map to kill the leaders at the end. Whichever strategy you choose, remember that the undead are well on their way to join the orcs occupying the city. Speed is a factor. If you don't manage to secure the city before the undead arrive en masse, you may as well take a step back once more and destroy the undead (and some remaining orcish stragglers) during the next day.

If you decide to use one of the slower strategies, note that there are 8 villages on your side of the river, you will probably be spending 10-20 turns pretty close to your starting keep, and you probably have a LOT of loyal units from past scenarios that you can recall. So, if you spend a lot of your starting gold on recalling loyal units, you can maintain a fairly high income during the early parts of this scenario, which will allow you to continually recruit reinforcements, whereas if you mostly recall non-loyal units, the upkeep costs could mean that you have several units less to work with. The slow approaches to this scenario are a battle of attrition as you try to hold off the waves of the enemy, so a few extra shamans to help with the undead wave can make a huge difference.

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 (and the difficulty level you play at).

COMMENTS BY ALEX STARGAZER: I would recommend you choose the option to have the thieves attack from the north. This is because the ford is quite some way to the north west (so the element of surprise is minimal, plus you may want to keep a contingent of forces guarding your villages) and because the AI diverts its troops to intercept you. Although, you should beware the approaching undead; thieves don’t work well against them.

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 fighters and archers do reduced damage to skeletons. It is the time for mages and (levelled) shamans to shine. If you happen to level up a paladin during the scenario the better. 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.

When your first unit crosses the threshold into the cave, the necromancer gets 2 lvl 2 revenants immediately, and a bunch of gold. He will recruit a full keep of lvl 1 skeletons the next turn if you let him. If you still have some quick non-elf units, like footpads or thieves, you can position them so that they can rush onto his castle hexes on the first turn they enter the cave,and thus block some of his recruitment on the next turn.

COMMENT: I recommend against horsemen—they’re useless against skeletons and they fight badly in Muff’s cave. They’re not even that effective against the orcs, since you’ll be fighting for villages and castle hexes; horsemen suck at this, as they make poor defenders and risky attackers.

If you approach this scenario patiently, it is helpful to smuggle a scout and/or merman past Elensefar to distract and steal villages in the green hinterland. This helps a lot with your income/recruitment in the middle turns, and slows down the undead leader's recruitment as well.

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 shamans (druids) 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 forum discussion.

Scenario 7 - Crossroads

• Objective: Defeat the north-eastern enemy leader.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die, or turns run out.
• Turns: 37/34/31 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz.
• Other
  • There are many enemies hidden in the mountains, placed at random.
  • Two loyal units, an elf fighter and an elf archer, join you.

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 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 forum discussion.

Scenario 8 - The Princess of Wesnoth

• Objective: Force Li'sar to surrender.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die, or turns run out.
• Turns: 31/28/25 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, and one veteran (typically an elf).

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 forum discussion.

[hipparchos] Patience is the key here. I send a couple of L2 horsemen north to take the northern villages, then cover your left flank. A couple of mermen swing south to take the southern ones, then cover your right flank. (The storm-trident merman stays on the village next to the mineshaft will deal with the Duellists.) But I put the bulk of my army on the west bank of the river, without crossing it. Let the enemy come to you, because they will be much easier to defeat when they're standing in the river, and that's especially true as the Princess recruits L2 defenders later in the scenario. The bridge is the northern end of your main line, and Delfador can defend it easily with one other strong unit. Only after all the Princess's defenders have been defeated do you cross the river and take her keep.

Scenario 9 - The Valley of Death

• Objective: Survive for 12 turns.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die.
• Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Moremirmu (if unlocked on the Isle of the Damned scenario).
• Other
  • The map contains two holy water objects, useful for attacking undead enemies.

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 around 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.

If your goal is only to survive 12 turns with minimal fuss, the northwest valley where one holy water is located is a more attractive position to hold than the starting castle. You have enough time to recruit 2 turns of units and still get everyone around the lake. With the edge of the map to your west, a wide mountain range to the east, no enemies to the north, and a small lake to your south, the position is very difficult for enemies to approach. As an added bonus, all 3 armies get funneled into approaching from the same direction, which results in them blocking each other quite often. You don't need to worry about enemies from the north because the northern army starts by moving straight down the middle of the map which puts them on the wrong side of the mountains from you.

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.

The early finish bonus (kill all 3 opponents) is difficult, and you will probably not have enough gold or high level units available to succeed with a direct frontal assault. A sneakier strategy is to assassinate the liches after you have lured the bulk of the undead army to the south east, leaving the liches alone in their keeps. You can use knights (horsemen won't work) with holy water for the northern and eastern liches, while your main army or perhaps a detachment of mages takes care of the southern one.

[edit: Viper] On medium, I found that I could only make this strategy work by save/loading and by using knights or better for the Litches (as horsemen could not do the job in a single turn even hitting on every attack).

Early finish bonus if you somehow manage to defeat all enemy leaders. If you do, feel free to boast about your accomplishment at the forum discussion.

Scenario 10 - Gryphon Mountain

• Objectives: Defeat the mother gryphon and the enemy commander.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 27/24/21 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz
• Early finish bonus: 24 gold / turn
• Other:
  • Killing the mother gryphon is optional, but doing it allows you to recruit gryphon riders in the future.

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

If you manage to 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.

COMMENT BY ALEX STARGAZER: use Elvish Scouts to village grab here. Your horsemen cavalry will struggle with both mountains and forest, while quick archers are too slow to deal with all the mountain ranges.

Scenario 11 - The Ford of Abez

• Objective: Move Konrad to the north side of the river.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die, or turns run out.
• Turns: 27/24/21 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz.
• Other:
  • A storm trident is located in the middle of the river.

The Great River cuts across the middle of the map from right to left, 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 forum discussion

Scenario 12 - Northern Winter

• Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders (2 of them).
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die, or turns run out.
• Turns: 50/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, a veteran (knight or mage).
• Early finish bonus: 47 / turn
• Other
  • Snow falls on more and more tiles every turn, until the whole map is covered in snow by the time turns run out.

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

• Objective: Move Konrad to the entrance of the dwarven tunnels.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 26/20/15 (easy/medium/hard)
• 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). If you happen to have a quick Lancer, it could be a good idea to use it for this purpose, but 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 position [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.

It's useful to know that moving any unit close to the small lake near the main entrance (any position inside the square between [10, 10] and [15, 15]) will cause an aquatic monster to appear. It will attack anything that moves (including orcs and trolls) and poisons its victims, so watch out.

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

Scenario 14 - Plunging into the Darkness

• Objective: Find the dwarves.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die.
• Turns: Unlimited.
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz.
• Other:
  • Secret pasage in south-western part of the tunnel.

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

• Objective: Kill all enemy leaders (there are two).
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 64/60/54 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz.
• Other
  • A loyal Dwarvish Ulfserker can be found by a merman in this scenario.
  • If the allied dwarf leader is saved in this scenario, you will then be able to recruit Dwarvish Guardsman units.

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.

If the dwarf leader survives (and you actually reveal him), Dwarvish Guardsman will become available. It is easy to underestimate the importance of these units. Their defensive capabilities can be greatly appreciated towards the end of the campaign, especially in the last two scenarios.

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

• Objective: Defeat the enemy leader.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 33/30/27 (easy/medium/hard)
• 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

• Objective: Capture the Sceptre of Fire with Konrad or Li'sar.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 50/45/35 (easy/medium/hard)
• 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.
  • On Wesnoth 1.10, Delfador will tell you which tunnel to take (North-East or North-West) if he misses his turn. It is recommended that you let him miss his turn, as knowing which tunnel to take will save you a significant amount of time and trouble.

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

• Objective: Defeat either of the leaders.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 33/30/27 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar.
• Other:
  • The next two scenarios are three different routes to the Elven kingdom, depending on the enemy leader you kill:
    • Northern (Orcish) leader: The Snow Plains where you can get the Flaming Sword (15-4, magical), followed by Home of the North Elves.
    • Southern (Undead) leader: The Swamp Of Dread where you can get the Void Armor (high resistance to blade, pierce, impact) , followed by Home of the North Elves.
    • If you take a merman east on the river to the edge of the map, you will brave Cliffs of Thoria which (used to be) an insanely difficult battle where you can find a loyal Sergeant (may become a level-4 leader). It will be followed by Underground Channels where you can receive a book "Wose Lore" that grants defence/move bonus to forest terrain and ambush ability.
  • 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 choke-point 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.

In v1.10 of Wesnoth, going south was certainly the prudent choice when considering the possible goodies: Li'sar went into battle wearing lingerie. While a magic sword or a loyal leader might come in handy, you didn't need them as badly as that Princess needed a suit of armor. With 1.12 and 1.14, she's better equipped for battle.

The undead need to be dealt with even if you don't want to kill their leader. Delfador, Kalenz and Li'sar 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.

I can confirm the above; this scenario is easy as pie. ~ Alex Stargazer, 29/1/16.

Diverging campaign path

Scenario 19A - Snow Plains

• Objective: Defeat the enemy leader.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out.
• Turns: 43/40/37 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar.
• Other:
  • Obtain the Flaming Sword.
  • Li'sar will tell you about her relationship with her mother.

The main feature of this scenario, as its name suggests, is the terrain. Both armies will be slowed down by the snow. You may try recalling thieves and elves, who are not slowed down as much as other types of units. Another good choice is horsemen (Knights, Paladins, Lancers), which will have a field day, given that the enemy tends to scatter some of its units throughout the map where they will be sitting targets.

You can find the Flaming Sword—a remarkable weapon of type melee-fire, magical, and with damage 15-4—on the great tree at [29,9]. You can equip it to one of your fighter heroes (Konrad, Kalenz, Li'sar) or any unit from the Elvish Fighter line, or to Paladins. A good idea is to give it to the unit you like to use the most in your front lines (but not to the same person with the Sceptre of Fire).

The Orcish leader will have a good flow of income, so once you gain control of the map, you can milk the battle for experience, in case any of your units need it.

(Mal Shubertal): If you're willing to give up the Flaming Sword, you can score a huge early finish bonus by recalling only gryphons, advancing them with your ground units to draw the enemy's attention, then swinging them around the enemy line and assassinating the leader once his troops are too far into the snow to reinforce him.

Scenario 19B - Swamp Of Dread

• Objective: Defeat the main enemy leader (Lich Lord at the SW corner)
• Bonus Objectives: Defeat all the minor enemy leaders (4 Death Knights)
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out
• Turns: 33/30/27 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar.
• Early finish bonus: 26/turn (on Medium difficulty)
• Other:
  • Void Armor from one of the enemy leaders.

The swamp of dread isn't all that dreadful. This is a 5-castle map and there are lots of undead, but they are mostly levels 0 and 1 - nothing like Princess' Revenge. The terrain is unfavorable (swamp and sand, but hampers the Undead as much as you; and if you have a preference for Gryphons or Merman, the mobility advantage will be yours.

The swamp is good terrain for your Mermen. Those with attacks that hurt the undead (the ones with Storm Tridents, Netcasters, Priestesses...) or any level 3 unit can make quite a difference. However, be aware that the campaign is coming to an end and you'll probably 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. (However, the next two levels do include rivers, so if you really insist you could still use Mermen later.)

One of the Death Knights (chosen randomly) drops the Void Armor when killed. The unit that picks it up will gain high resistance to physical damage (50% blade, 40% impact and 40% pierce, instead of whatever previous values they had). Since Li'sar is very vulnerable to precisely those types of damage, you should probably give her the armor. You might consider 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. Note, however, that by the time you get the armor you're probably close to clearing the level anyway, so better to think of it as an end-of-scenario perk rather than an intermediary objective playing the scenario.

Some of the Lich's power seems to be tied to the death knights; killing all four will hurt the Lich for about half its hit-points.

Early finish bonus for killing all 5 enemy leaders.

ALEX STARGAZER: As of Wesnoth 1.10, Li’sar resists blade and impact attacks, instead of being weak to them. (Her defence has been lowered to compensate somewhat.) Because of this, I would recommend against giving her the Void Armour—especially if she already has the scepter. The Void Armour is much more useful for an Elvish Champion or Avenger (but not Dwarvish Lords, they already have excellent resistances) or even to protect a fragile mage from melee attacks. I personally gave the armour to a loyal Paladin: having 40% pierce resistance instead of -20% is a substantial plus to this unit.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 19C - The Cliffs of Thoria

• Objectives:
  1. Make it to the end of the river, to the east.
  2. Reach the cave with Konrad.
• Bonus Objectives: Rescue the loyal Sergeant.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 55/50/45 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar, a Merman veteran.
• Early finish bonus: 27 per turn
• Other:
  • Loyal Sergeant on SE corner island.
  • A storm trident is located near the first two islands.
  • You find small amounts of gold on each drake base you conquer.

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 few turns 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.

There is an opportunity to pick up a wonderful loyal unit, although you may wish to skip the challenge if you don't have good gold reserves and a sufficient number of leveled-up mermen.

Among the choices presented in the previous scenario, this map has historically been intended to be the hardest one of all. However, as of version 1.10.x, this map has been made significantly easier. The main difference is that now the drakes come out at a slower rate from their bases, and they are much more passive in general. With careful strategy and by progressing steadily through the map—not moving your gryphons ahead too quickly—you should be able to beat it without a lot of pain. At any rate, this scenario is no longer the monumental challenge it used to be.

Hire many gryphons and Merfolk. Since each base creates a unit every few turns, to destroy a base you have to kill its occupant or wait until it flies towards one of your units, and then move a unit onto the base as quickly as possible, before a new drake comes out of it. Since Merfolk can't move onto mountains, you'll need gryphons for that. However, if you have any Elvish Rangers/Avengers, note that they have better defence and much better movement on water than the other landlubbers; they even have better movetypes on mountains! This makes them extremely useful for attacking the drake bases—as gryphons, even at L2, are much poorer fighters. For example: a L2 gryphon will deal 14–2 damage to a drake (total 28) while a ranger will do 8—4 (total 32) and rangers will still deal 6–3 melee retaliation damage. You will be surprised at how vulnerable the fliers are to drake fire and attrition from retaliation.

Drakes are vulnerable to piercing and arcane damage, so elvish arrows can be useful, as can your healers as spellcasters, but don't get too many landlubbers—most of the fighting will happen in or over the water. Shydes are the exception, as they can move and fight well over both mountain and water (and have magical piercing attacks on top). 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 reach the marked "cave entrance" in the middle of the northern edge of the map. Start walking early, he'll take a while.

A loyal leader can be found on the island at the South-Eastern corner of the map. He's badly hurt and poisoned, but you will probably have the time to clear the surroundings and level him up using the undead swamp guards.

A final tip: if you can lure a drake off its base, you can both a) easily kill it in the water and b) occupy its base with a gryphon.

Comment: The decreased difficulty combined with the easily available XP in shape of the undead guards unbalances the rest of the campaign badly. If this is not intended, choose another road.

Divergent Campaign Paths

Scenario 20A - Home of the North Elves

• Objectives:
• Konrad must reach the Lintanir forest, at the East of the map, and hold that position until a turn is over.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz or Li'sar die or turns run out
• Turns: 18
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar
• Early finish bonus: 47 Gold per turn
• Other:
  • Your base will be dismantled after the first turn

You reach this scenario from either Scenario 19A - Snow Plains or Scenario 19B - Swamp Of Dread.

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 South-East. 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 up to 3 loyal units which can move six or more hexes per turn (provided you kept this many alive), in addition to the 4 heroes (Konrad, Li'sar, Kalenz and Deflador). You many recruit an additional encampment of more troops (i.e. 6 more); it's probably best to get only riders, be they human, elf or gryphon. Most of them should be level-2 at least. 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 move Konrad into the forest, while keeping 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 no one tells you that the Elves (who 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.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 20B - Underground Channels

• Objective: Find the exit from the underground and move Konrad to it.
• Lose if: Death of Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar, Kalenz, or turns run out.
• Turns: 80/70/60 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Delfador, Kondrad, Li'sar and Kalenz.
• Early finish bonus: 53 per turn
• Other:
  • Wose Lore book will drop in the North West Corner of map after you defeat the Ancient Lich.

You start at the far South West of a large map, consisting of mostly cave, river and swamp areas. In the North West is a friendly Wose leader who will send a few level one Woses, and at the far North East is the entrance, and some friendly elvish units. In the middle is an ancient Lich who recruits level 2 and 3 undead, and in the South East is a small group of Saurians.

This level is relatively easy, especially with the high-level Mermen you should have from the Cliffs of Thoria. You can recruit on keep of level 2 and 3 Mermen and Dwarves, and either run North and then East for a quick finish, bypassing most enemies, go East and then North, farming some experience from the Saurians, or slowly kill every enemy on the map before continuing. Be careful if you choose to fight the undead though, as the ancient Lich can kill most of your units in one turn, and his recruits, though not numerous, are powerful. If you choose to fight the undead, the mermen who got the tridents in previous scenarios, as well as any Mermaid Priestesses or Diviners will be extremely useful.

If you trigger a dialogue with the Woses and help the Ancient Wose defeat the Ancient Lich. A dialogue between Delfador and the Woses will trigger and prompt you that the Woses thought Delfador was looking for a book back in his youth. The book when read: "Wose Lore - This massive book is filled with the Lore and legends of the Wose. Any who read it learn deeply of the ways of the twig and leaf, the tree and the forest.

The Book's effect (to be confirmed): Reduce Move Point cost for forest terrain by 3 - i.e. minus 3 but stop at 1 Move Point for forest terrain (duh). Give AMBUSH ability. Give 70% defence on forest terrain.

Jascaicps1: Please note that this book works on ANY UNIT regardless of race. I believe these would work best:

1. Knight - I gave it to my loyal grand knight - now you have a heavily-armoured knight that can sneak and is very agile in a forest...
2. Dwarf Berserker (credits to 'Soliton' for suggesting this) - 70% defence works well with his berserk ability.
3. Li'sar (meh) - it helps a bit but she already has decent defence but will make her very agile through forest.

For the laughs:

1. Gryphon riders - yes. A bird and a dwarf hiding in a forest.
2. Merfolk - unfortunately, they move at 2MP in forest.
3. Ranger (human) - now you have a chaotic 'elvish' ranger.

Jascaicps1: I completed this on challenging 1.14.7. I decided to help defeat the Ancient Lich after triggering dialogue with the Woses and an optional objective appeared on screen 'Help Woses defeat the undead'. While the level 4 Ancient Lich may seem frightening especially with the permanent night bonus from being inside a cave, during my run the Anicent Lich did not aggresively attacked even when my heroes were next to it. Same said for the Saurian Leader.

Saurian leader is relatively easy. I sent my whole loyal merfolk army at them. At this point I had Mermaid Diviner with my illuminates helping to do damage. Remember to always make a wall around your healer. The first Saurians in my run all had skirmish ability which made the fight pretty annoying (since I was trying to level up my merfolks). Make sure you have most of army on relatively high hp before assaulting their keep. You will need to cross dry land and switch out merfolks to tank the front line. This is where your 'quick' hoplites shine.

Undead is relatively easy if you use your heroes. But watch out for Nightgaunts they're invisible at night, skirmish and have backstab. Fortunately for me, all nightgaunts were lone wolf fighters and never grouped. The undead army is mainly comprised of few but decent units - Revenants, Ghouls, Wraiths... anything that is easy for Li'sar with sceptre to take on or Delfador. Additionally, should be a good time for the Sergeant you rescued to get a bit of experience. In my run, I didn't recall my Mages of light which would have the fight against the Ancient easier. Additioinally, use magic as a finisher. Lich can nearly one shot any of your units. I used konrad, li'sar to use melee and delfador to finish the lich off with magic.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 21 - The Elven Council

This is a cut-scene furthering the storyline. No combat takes place.

Scenario 22 - Return to Wesnoth

• Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders: 2 Loyalist Generals, 1 Orcish Warlord.
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 31/28/25 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar.

Three Halbardiers appear as enemy reinforcements in the lower southeastern corner of the map when you slay the nearest general, Josephus (just South of your encampment). 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.

You can use the forests to your advantage: Elven troops are best in forest, while the Loyalists and Orcs are seriously slowed by the trees. On the other hand, nobody said your enemies will be that interested in frolicking in the forest when they have more accessible enemies outside of it.

How about Gryphons? Your enemies will be recruiting level-2 and level-3 units, and the Halbardiers are level-3, so relying on a force of Gryphon riders, or even Gryphon masters, will probably not work out too well. However, a pair of Gryphons (especially quick ones) can work great for village captures, doubling as an effective diversion, especially with respect to the Halbardiers. Watch these heavy-hitters comically wading through the thick brush of the South-East forest as you fly circles around them.

Your enemies aren't very rich, so while their recruits are powerful - they're also few in numbers. This means their defensive formations will have gaps. Add the fact that, except for the Goblin Knights, your enemies are on the slow side, and you find that using mounted units could be opportune. The downside for these is the Halbardiers' first strike: A lancer or Knight taking ~38 damage before touching his enemy is not a pretty sight. Take these out with your heroes instead (Delfador, Kalenz and whoever has the scepter), or units with ranged attacks.

See also the forum discussion

Scenario 23 - Test of the Clans

• Objectives: Either:
  • Defeat all 4 enemy leaders (Grand Knights), or
  • Kill (25/35/50) enemy units in total (on Easy/Medium/Hard difficulty)
• Lose if: Konrad, Delfador, Li'sar or Kalenz die or turns run out.
• Turns: 53/50/47 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Li'sar.
• Early finish bonus: 54 Gold per turn (on Medium difficulty)

This is a large map against mostly Knights, Lancers, and Bowmen. The map is mostly open plains, which is an ideal battlefield for mounted units. The easiest way to complete 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 deal high damage to the mounted enemy units (which have low pierce resistance).

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 gold bonus for the next level.

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 relatively 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. Dwarves can also be useful for forming defensive lines on open ground. What they lack in defense rating, they make up in pierce resistance.

If you want to defeat all the clan leaders before killing the maximum allowed number of units (which ends 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-Eastern leader, then send the two Gryphons to the group in the lake.

As soon as the majority of the North-Western 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 South-West (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 outrun 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.

An alternative strategy for defeating the enemy leaders relies on Li'sar being equipped with both the Scepter of Fire and the Void Armor. This makes her very difficult to hit and very effective against the mounted units (they have no ranged attacks, plus, if they try to lance her they're up against 26-4). What's more, the AI will tend to ignore her: Individual units will tend to not approach her, and groups will go after her escort if she has any. This means she can mount an effective attack together with a very small escort on the South-Eastern leader right away; and after that, the escort can pretty much leave her to go after the Black leader in the South-West alone. In the mean time, A force of Knights or Gryphons might go forward to dispatch the North-Western leader. Then whoever i's left converges on Bayar in the West.

See also the forum discussion.

Scenario 24 - The Battle for Wesnoth

• Objectives: Defeat Asheviere (thus claiming the throne for Li'sar)
• 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 gold per turn (and what's that good for, exactly?)

One good strategy for this scenario is to set up a defensive line 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 at least one turn, after which you rotate them with freshly healed units. Don't attack the attackers if it means your unit won't have enough HP to survive the next thrashing. Three or Four healers will be needed behind the lines, and keep them fully occupied (remember that healers will heal every unit adjacent to them for 8 HP. They're like walking sets of 6 villages).

For front-line units, Dwarvish Guardsmen, even Level-1, are excellent; they'll take a good beating but not lose too many HP because of their steadfast attribute, on top of their basic resistance to Pierce (read: lance) attacks. Because they don't lose many HP, they'll also heal quickly. Only attack the enemy if no HP 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 50 HP. Elvish Marshals will make your Dwarvish Guardsmen or Stalwarts 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.

COMMENTS BY ALEX STARGAZER: The above strategy works well, but is unnecessarily conservative. Three healers is the most you’ll need (otherwise they’ll be a liability trying to keep guarded). You can, and should, attack the enemy. One good way of doing this is to use Li’sar’s scepter to burn most of a strong unit’s HP away, and then finish the target with guardsmen (or steelclads) backed by her leadership. This tactic will also leave Li’sar well protected from counterattacks.

Knights/Grand Knights deal a huge amount of damage, and can be used to destroy enemy archers and cavalry. Even Royal Guards can be killed this way: slowing them, or wounding them with archers/mages, and then charging them is an excellent tactic. Halbediers are the one exception to this.

If you have Mages of Light, manipulating their illumination is very effective against the orcs, although loyalist units require more caution. Tactically, the units you should be worried most about are duelists (dangerous skirmishers), halbediers (a real problem for most of your units; use mages and finish them off with lords/steelclads) and cavalry, which can sneak past your flanks or engage in suicide charges. Strategically, you’ll want to pay attention to your flanks, and ensure you have enough guardsmen to cover gaps. Avoid losing valuable units; it’s better to keep your Grand Knights/Elvish Marshalls/Dwarvish Lords/healers alive, even if it means passing up on killing high level enemies. You have plenty of gold to replace guardsmen, but you can’t replace a healer or leader. /END

If you have any Assassins, rotate them up and down the line, poisoning enemy units. The enemies have very few villages available to them in your vicinity, 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 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: Recruit six of them, right on Turn 1, and send them South. You'll easily elude the forces of the Eastern general and reach the river (or just past it). Moving in for the kill, however, might prove more difficult than you think - unless you've used an effective distraction. Sending out six-packs of Knight recruits each turn works well. Asheviere herself will not have many troops surrounding her for protection, and might actually be stupid enough to leave her castle to attack your Gryphons. One has to wonder how she's held on to the throne this long with such a poor sense of judgement. You'll probably want to approach her from the South-West, as right South of her is the bridge on which the loyal Weldyn troops will be coming to get you.

Using this strategy it is possible to win within 6-7 turns, without any significant losses. If, however, you've not distracted well enough, Asheviere may divert up to half of her forces to get your Gryphons. But in this case, again - congratulations, you've won: You should have still about 20 living Knights to storm the city with, while too many of her troops are stuck finishing their roast Gryphon sandwiches.

Of course, in both of the above cases you would be relying on a good bonus from Test of the Clans, which should be enough to win this scenario in any which way.

Another humorous brute-force way to win this battle is by relying purely on the diversion tactic mentioned above: An all-Knight rush. Knights are quite possibly the only Level-2 unit you can ever recruit in the mainline campaigns; with roughly 1,500 Gold from the plains battle, just send out loads of Knights to massacre the enemy with suicidal attacks. Just make sure to keep your heroes out of harm's way... It'll be a very bloody, but relatively short, win.

See also the forum discussion.