LegendofWesmere

This is a walkthrough of Legend of Wesmere, a campaign that tells the story of Kalenz, the famous elf hero that plays an important role in Heir to the Throne.

This is a long campaign, organized in five chapters, where you play Elves. It is therefore recommended to take a moment to review their top level units; there are two units capable of flight! One of them is a curing healer +8, the other one is level 4. Both of them can do magic, and both of them can slow their enemies! If you can team up two Shydes and two Sylphs, you get a magically hard hitting, regenerating, slowing air force that can ZoC-lock an enemy. As if that wasn't enough, late in the campaign you'll lose access to most of your veteran troops, but not your Sylphs and Shydes. Hence, it really pays to level Shamans. The only catch, however, is that they are not available during the first chapter of the story (the first three scenarios); you will still have enough opportunity to level them up, but it requires some determined effort.

As a general rule of thumb throughout this campaign, if your elves need to make a stand and you have a choice of options, choose the one that will put most of them in the woods. Not only will this give you the best chance of survival, it will ensure that the AI playing your allies will do useful things. This matters a lot, because many of the scenarios in this campaign involve allies you cannot control whose death results in your defeat.

Loyal troops are even more valuable in this campaign than in most others, partially because they get three traits, but mainly because you'll get to keep them when your other troops are unavailable. With that in mind, you should strongly consider leveling Arkildur (a loyal fighter that starts with you) into a marshal. The leadership skill will prove invaluable when you depend on level 1 units.

The Uprooting

• Objectives: Kill any of the orc leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz or Landar dies or turns run out
• Turns: 20/17/14 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Anduilas and Arkildur

Like the first scenario in Heir to the Throne, this scenario begins with the hero in a forest with enemies preparing to close in on all sides. You might want to simply run away (and previously you could), but you have to kill one enemy leader.

The keep directly to the east is one option. If you keep most of his stronghold hexes plugged up with your units or your enemy's, then he will not be able to spend all his gold before you kill the leader, possibly when he dives in the water.

A good alternative is going southwest, as this puts the maximum distance between you and the troops of the other orcish leaders, and only level 1 orcs will come from that corner.

You can only recruit fighters and archers. Use fighters to shield yourself and archers to kill the grunts (and warriors on hard.) Keep loyals and leaders safe - if only one unit shields them, remember that it can be killed by a single lucky L2 orc. If you manage to level up units choose captain for fighters and marksman for archers.

Hostile Mountains

• Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost or defeat the troll leader
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Olurf dies or turns run out
• Turns: 32/28/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

The most important thing to do is get the dwarves to fight the trolls. The trolls will go to the east bank without any bait, just take care you don't lure them away or worse anger the dwarves yourself. Even after they fight with the trolls, do not go to the east bank.

Recruit fighters to die, archers to do damage. The trolls will tend to go for the fighters when given the option. If you don't have a captain yet, level up a fighter as soon as possible, and use his leadership on your archers. You will need marksmen to kill trolls on mountains, so keep your archers safe (well, at least on reasonable terrain).

Do not, under any circumstances, cross the river. If you do, Olurf will attack you, and the trolls will cut both you and the dwarves to pieces. You can have units stand in the river if necessary to reach a particular unit, but since your enemies are more powerful than your units avoid doing so if you are likely to be counterattacked. Instead, send out an archer or two (preferably quick ones) to grab the villages in the far northern reaches of the board while you move your troops onto the wooded island in the middle of the river, directly south of your keep. From here, you can help the dwarves whittle down the trolls while you slowly wend your way southwest toward the troll keep. The scenario will end if you succeed in killing the troll leader. Note: Olurf's death counts as a defeat.

There is a reason the middle island has so much forest. The western bank of the river has a narrow swath of forest surrounded by mountains and hills. This is not ideal terrain for fighting trolls. Trolls move faster than elves on hills and mountains and have comparable defense. A much better idea is to try to occupy the middle island, forcing the trolls to attack from water. Chances are you'll only be able to claim the northern tip of the island at first, so half your army will spill over to the forest on the west bank. The dwarves help by putting units in water and doing other things to distract the trolls and draw fire away from you.

[revolting_peasent:] I don't subscribe that much to the advice above. The bottom-half of the Island is the Troll-Dwarf highway of death... and I kept to the North of the island. Also, some Trolls were going up, North, to try to flank me, so I put a (sort of) a line on the West bank as well, and managed to kill them off with some unit rotations, dwarf help, and the occasional forray into the water (or the Troll stupid enough to attack from the water). [/revolting_peasent]

It is preferable to aim to kill the troll leader rather than get to the signpost as the experience is most important. Also, on Medium, the Dwarves will just kill him anyway if you don't get to him first.

Ka'lian Under Attack

• Objectives: Survive the initial attack with Galtrid, then defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Galtrid dies or turns run out
• Turns: 5/7/9 initially, then 35/30/25 extra (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

Take careful note of this map; you'll be fighting on it again later.

For the first turns (original turn limit) you play the defenders of the Ka'lian. See all those Orcish Assassins in the water? Make sure they receive as much retaliation as possible when they poison your units (archers). As you can heal only 2 units per turn, make sure they can't poison your fresh recruits as well. Also, you can kill Assassins with some of your poisoned units, as long as they have still enough hitpoints. Distribute XP carefully; units heal upon level up; rarely is this more useful than in this scenario.

Don't just hit Ctrl-R to recruit; you have a massive keep so put your new units in the right place. Don't let the orcs in good defense terrain and you should be fine. Use Galtrids leadership carefully by moving him multiple times per turn to support different areas of the castle.

When Kalenz arrives, the orcs just pile up in the northwestern corner if you defended the Ka'lian well. Control the map, by trapping and killing the village stealing wolf riders, heal your poisoned Ka'lian defenders and let them do some work. Close in carefully - it will be very hard avoiding casualties, but when the time comes, let them be L1 fighters and not your L2. You can level a number of units, but don't wait too long, because you will need gold for the next scenario. (250+ carryover)

The behaviour of the orcs will depend directly on your ability to hold out the invasion of your fortress. If you manage to repel somewhat successfully their initial attack, the orcs will assume a defensive stance for the second part of the battle (usually triggered when Kalenz arrives). If, on the other hand, the orcs have a more successful start, they then become more aggressive and the battle becomes much more lively on the second part.

A special feature of this particular scenario—something not very common in a campaign—is that you will control two armies simultaneously after Kalenz' arrival. You start by assuming the role of Galtrid, and later Kalenz joins the party, at which time you will switch between your two roles. Note that, although Galtrid's army should not be your main concern, you will get a chance to recall Ka'lian's veterans in the future (see Elves' Last Stand), so it's useful to protect any level 2 or 3 levels you get from Galtrid's team.

Note for versions older than 1.12: Galtrid's army does not show up again, so those units are truly expendable in that case.

The Elvish Treasury

• Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Cleodil dies or turns run out
• Turns: 35/30/25 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

There are two main ways to play this scenario. The most straightforward solution is to send your army en masse to the keep in the northwest first; that's where Cleodil (an Elvish Shyde) is. Then turn east to take out the other saurian. Recruit plenty of Fighters, use leadership to full extent and try to heal by leveling up.

Alternatively, it is possible to kill the eastern leader with Rangers/Avengers. The AI will completely ignore them once they are in the woods again. This allows you to play more defensively in the west.

When fighting the saurians, there are three things to remember: 1) Don't send out isolated units, because they'll be swarmed and killed; 2) Try to keep the saurians on bad terrain 3) watch the day/night cycle (it doesn't affect your elves, but the saurians are significantly weaker by day and you can turn that fact to great advantage). Kill the Augurs as soon as possible with your fighter line. The skirmishers have a lot of movement points; make sure that wounded units are safe or meant to be sacrificed. In general, take your time to experiment and figure out what works best on your strategy against saurians, as you'll be seeing many more of them in the future.

Along with Cleodil, two other units will be freed from the prison. All of them become loyal to your cause, so by the end of this scenario you'll have a small loyal army on your hands. Protect them well.

There's a couple of things worth noting regarding Cleodil. One is that she has a couple of interesting abilities: elates Kalenz which works basically like leadership but only works on Kalenz, and heals Kalenz which boosts her healing powers, but only on Kalenz. As you may guess, this means that from now on it's a good idea to keep those two close to each other in the battle field. The other important detail is that she can recruit Shamans and Woses. You may try it out in this scenario, in the small keep to the north. This works out nicely if your strategy for this scenario is to concentrate on the northwestern enemy first. With a little effort, you can free Cleodil relatively quickly, and then her recruits can be very helpful for the rest of the battle.

The Saurian Treasury

• Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar or Cleodil dies or turns run out
• Turns: 24/20/18 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

This scenario is much trickier than the last one because here you have to fight the saurians on terrain that's hostile to your elves (desert and swamp). Try to confront them on favorable terrain and form a defensive line (against Skirmishers) each turn. Woses are very effective against saurians, so if you have trouble with this scenario, try recruiting at least 6 Woses. Also, the slows attribute of Shamans' ranged attacks limits the damage potential and mobility of Skirmishers. Kill the southern leader first.

When you've dealt with the southern leader and the treasury (the single saurian sitting on a village and not moving) you can either take an Elvish Scout to the treasury to pick up the gold and return it to the sign post (but traveling more slowly than usual) or just go kill the northern leader. Killing the leader is preferable. You'll get XP and any loss in gold from early finish is dwarfed by the 1800 gold you get for beating the level.

Keep an eye on the turn limit. The enemy leaders are easily lured out with an Elvish Scout.

Acquaintance in Need

• Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
• Turns: 35/30/25 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

There is another troll leader to kill, so it is an XP opportunity, like for your Shamans. For recruiting, you need to make sure that you neither overrecruit nor underrecruit. With too few units, you will take too long to finish your enemies (as always), while too many units won't help you in the fight, and you will need the money!

Start with the green enemy, who is the closest one to you. The dwarves, who are your allies for this scenario, should provide substantial help in doing so. While you finish off the first orc, you should start sending a fair amount of relatively unexperienced Archers/Shamans west to take on the troll. Then move north over the mountains in a broad line to take out the orcs. A broad front line will help you to quickly overrun the orcs and allow you to finish in good time. Of course, you need sufficient numbers to do this without overstretching yourself.

The dwarves will get a lot of kills/occupy the enemy quite a bit. Their high mountain defense and mobility ensure this. You may need to resign yourself to softening the orcs up and letting the dwarves get the kills.

On this scenario you'll be able to ask Olurf to move to a specific location inside the map (using right-click), which may be useful in case you want his help in some particularly tight spot. This is one of the ways in which you can control the behaviour of your allies (you'll see another in the next scenario). Notice, however, that this command only applies to Olurf himself, and his troops will continue to move freely as they please, often taking experience away from you.

By the end of the scenario, you will end up "hiring" Olurf—paying him 400 gold—but if you've been careful with your finances, you probably won't miss that amount.

Elves' Last Stand

• Objectives:
  • Defeat all of the enemy leaders or
  • "Own the field," which means having more than 25 units while the enemy has under 15.
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Galtrid dies or turns run out
• Turns: 30/25/20 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

This is the same map as in Kal'ian Under Attack, but with many more enemies. You'll be facing vast numbers of trolls, orcs, and naga. On the upside, you get one more chance to fight with the Ka'lian's army, and can use your veterans from the scenario Ka'lian Under Attack.

For recruitment, spamming Fighters and Archers is essential. Supplement them with Elder Woses or just plain Woses. You'll be facing the poison of Assassins, Slayers, and Water Serpents as well the damage of L2 and L3 Trolls, so recall as many healers as you have, plus a lot of Shamans. Mix some in with your ally's forces, since he has no Shaman line units. Finish your recruitment by recalling whatever L3 units you have.

Now that you have control of your allies, it makes most sense to let him have all the villages. Have your ally recruit a couple of Elf Scouts to keep reflagging villages after you use them for healing or the enemy captures them. It's impossible for you or your ally to have gold carryover from this scenario, so make sure to spend it all here. Recruit as much as you can and be aggressive.

To save Eradion (your elf ally to the west), you likely either need to evacuate him to the Ka'lian or send reinforcements from the Ka'lian to him. Note that Eradion can also recall Galtrid's veterans. Therefore if you can manage it, having Eradion stay in the keep to the west is recommended, so that he can recruit and recall right into the middle of the battlefield.

If you wish to keep control of the Ka'lian, you'll need to maintain considerable forces there. However, this island fortress is not much of a defense against the droves of Water Serpents and L1, L2 and maybe L3 Naga headed its way. They get 60% defense in water, so your moat is like a fortress for them. Therefore, abandoning the Ka'lian after your initial recruiting is an option to consider. Fortunately, there is good terrain (forest) to the west and north/northeast of the Ka'lian. Note that if you avoid waterfront hexes, the Water Serpents will crawl onto land, where they are much easier to kill.

Good tactics are essential. Don't get sloppy about formation and protecting the wounded. Maintain mostly straight lines early on. Don't get flanked. Try to keep loyals and criticals off the front line, especially at night versus trolls. If you're careful, you can use the heavy fighting to level units.

700 starting gold is sufficient, barely. Try abandoning the Ka'lian, sending your allied troops west to Eradion's keep area, while your main army digs in within the forest northeast of the Ka'lian. Good luck!

Olurf does not show up until the battle is won.

Note for versions older than 1.12: This scenario formerly had AI-controlled allies that you could "instruct" in various ways, not very effectively as it turns out. You don't fight nagas, and Olurf did participate in the battle after showing up around turn 12. The turn limit for the older versions was 35/30/25 (Easy/Medium/Hard).

Council of Hard Choices

Story only.

Bounty Hunters

• Objectives: Move Kalenz across the river
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
• Turns: 32/28/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

The only thing you gain from defeating the saurians is experience. If you are having trouble beating this level, just recruit one round, and run north as fast as you can with your criticals. To slow down the saurians, you can divide your recruits and send half left and half right. When you reach the river, sea monsters (Water Serpents and Cuttle Fish) will attack. You may try distracting the monsters by tossing threm some tasty Elvish Scouts. The saurians will catch up as you're crossing the river, but at least a few of the saurians will focus on killing any remaining sea monsters before worrying about your leaders. Make use of the island to get Kalenz across as quickly as possible.

By getting Kalenz quickly across the river, you'll get a hefty early finish bonus, rebuilding your gold reserve. Gold will become very important by the time you reach the Human Alliance scenario.

If you want to claim some experience as well, a small cadre of Elder Woses and Rangers can lure units one or two at a time to their deaths in the southern woods. They can hide in forest terrain if too many enemy units are in the area. Meanwhile, three Dwarf Guardsmen can serve as a disposable rear guard for your leaders fleeing to the north.

Cliffs of Thoria

• Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost or defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil or Olurf dies or turns run out
• Turns: 32/28/24 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

There are three tricky elements about this one.

First, if you want Kalenz to get to the signpost, he'll have to climb there over high mountains, so the going will be very slow; watch the turn clock carefully.

Second, the "fog of war" applies so you won't know much about your enemies until you actually bump into them.

Third, among your enemies you will find level 4 Yetis (which pack quite a punch) and Gryphons (which move very quickly through any terrain). Keep your Shamans ready to slow Yetis before you attack them with other units.

For recruitment, you can probably get by with one round of raw recruits. However, note that dwarves do well in the mountains, so you may want more than three dwarf recruits. Avoid Ulfserkers and Berzerkers, though, as they are too vulnerable in this scenario, where things tend to jump out of the fog at you.

Heed the dialog; proceed with caution. After the initial battle, you can split your forces, sending a group to each enemy stronghold (northwest and east), while optionally sending a third group with Kalenz directly to the signpost.

Battle of the Book

• Objectives: Defeat Aquagar the drake wizard
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Crelanu or Olurf dies or turns run out
• Turns: 30/34/38 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

The drakes, commanded by Aquagar (the foe you must defeat), are at the northwest corner, while a keep of trolls is located at the northeast. Crelanu, the wise mage for whom you came, is by the lake. You can send a quick unit (e.g. an Outrider or Cleodil) towards that keep in the middle of the map to trigger the dialogue with Crelanu.

For recalling, especially useful units include Steelclads, Pathfinders, Marksmen, Rangers, Sorceresses, Thungerguards, and Stalwarts. A good mix of impact and ranged fighters is essential, because a lot of drakes breathe fire. One round of recruiting/recalling should be more than sufficient.

You may try splitting your forces, sending half of your troops east along the road first to Crelanu's keep to save him and kill the troll leader (whose keep is close by). Take the remaining troops west to kill the drake leader.

However, it will take some time for the trolls to reach Crelanu, so it's probably better to focus all your power towards Aquagar to finish him as quickly as possible, and then Crelanu won't need any assistance. A quick finish means a big win bonus. You'll need it for the next scenario.

Revelations

Story only.

News from the Front

Story only.

Human Alliance

• Objectives: Survive until the end of turns
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf or Aldar (the human leader) dies or turns run out
• Turns: 18/20/22 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

Historically, this scenario has been considered the unofficial finale and it used to be very challenging in versions previous to 1.12. In those older versions, the following scenarios are kind of a sequel, and easier too.

The enemy is in three places: the northwest, the northeast (trolls) and the southwest. The most challenging aspect of this scenario is that your army has to do three things practically simultaneously: contain the northwest orcs (this is not that hard due to favorable terrain), aid your human allies to the south, and hold off the trolls. Fortunately, you have a lot of support from your allies, and this time you control 3 different armies.

You should spend all your gold upfront—there is no much point in saving it for later. The human leader gets a steady stream of income plus can recruit some 2nd and 3rd level units, so is a formidable force. However, the trolls are no push over and may be the toughest of your three fronts. It may be no problem holding off the NW front given the water and favorable terrain, and the forces from the SW come in a slow enough stream that by the time they reach you, they are not much more than an annoyance given the tree line. However, the trolls, with a constant stream of recruits, are a challenge. Strive to use the human army well to either help with trolls or tie up the SW enemy so you can focus on the trolls. Woses backed by leadership are very good against the trolls. (And BTW, for the Breaking the Siege scenario coming up, you definitely want to focus on getting at least a couple each of Sylphs and Shydes here if you don't already have them.)

On turn 9, the veterans you left at the Ka'lian appear in the western forest near the keeps of the allied elves.

Notes for versions older than 1.12: This used to be a significantly harder challenge. Each enemy line received reinforcements every few turns, and their numbers were much larger. You didn't control your allies, which meant keeping the human general alive was quite difficult.

The Treaty

Story only.

The Chief Must Die

• Objectives: Kill the orc chief then return to the signpost
• Lose if: Kalenz or Landar dies or turns run out
• Turns: 32/32/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz and Landar

You get no keep, and no chance to recruit, in this one. The only units you have are Kalenz and Landar, and their only task is to assassinate the Orc Sovereign (in the middle) and then return to the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Your units will have special attributes (invisible, 80% dodge) for this scenario only that will make this easy.

When Kalenz takes the potion he changes into a level 2 Elvish Lord (as you might remember him if you have played HttT). He will now possess an arcane-magical attack, which proves very useful against many enemies. You should easily be able to get him to level up during this scenario.

You should have plenty of turns. The only units that will bother you are the Wolf Rider line. They don't pose much threat thanks to Landar's bow and your 80% dodge. Go to the orc leader, kill him and return to the signpost. There is no point in grabbing villages as you get no income from them. There is also no point in finishing early so go ahead and level Kalenz.

Breaking the Siege

• Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf or Uradredia (the elf leader) dies or turns run out
• Turns: 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar, Cleodil, Olurf and any surviving loyal units

Stick to recruiting units with lots of mobility, since the map is large and mostly snow-covered, hampering most of your unit types (don't even bother to recruit dwarves—they won't get to the scene of the action in time to strike any blows). Sylphs and Shydes are best, of course.

It is essential that you reach your ally quickly. Otherwise he might be dead before you even see him. Despite the fact that fog of war is turned on for this scenario, it's pretty simple to figure out from the geography which keep belongs to your ally (the one in the middle of the forest). You will want to finish this level quickly or/and to grab as soon as possible all the villages to have lots of gold for the next scenario (on medium you'll probably want at least 500 gold). Send some fast units north to keep your ally alive and send the rest straight west. The western units can sweep up after taking out the southern orc boss. A few of Direwolf Riders come as reinforcements when you get to close to the southern orc, so be careful. Alternatively just send everyone north and fan out from there.

With good units this level shouldn't be tough to beat. Just make sure you beat it in good standing for the next scenario. At this point, this campaign becomes a very good example of why keeping your loyal units alive is very much worth it.

Hour of Glory

Story only.

Costly Revenge

• Objectives: Defeat all enemy units and destroy all enemy villages
• Lose if: Kalenz, Landar dies or turns run out
• Turns: 40/35/30 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Landar and any surviving loyal units

This is the same map as The Saurian Treasury, but with most of the terrain snow-covered. Since you're fighting the saurians again, most of the advice from that scenario still applies. Mobility is not a great issue, even though one of the enemy keeps is near the top northeastern corner of the map, because by the time you can dispose of your southern enemy he will have already sent most of his troops south after you. Numbers are an issue, however. In any case, there is no gold carryover for the next scenario, so you might as well spend all your gold here recruiting.

The best place to make a stand is probably near the patch of forest in the middle (high casualty approach) or the forest with the big ice plain in front of it (low casualty approach).

The only poor-defense terrain for the saurians is the ice, so keep them on it. The Oracles/Soothsayers will use their ranged attack on your melee units and the Skirmishers/Flankers will use their melee attack on your archers. You will take heavy losses but this is actually good (more on that in a second).

I like to send Kalenz and a couple of fast units (Scouts/Riders) along the northern forest and then have them cut across the top of the map. This accomplishes three things: one, you torch some out of the way villages; two, you can distract the northern saurians long enough to keep your main force (in the middle of the map) in control; three, you can move them over to kill the northern leader at the end.

There is a weird twist to this level. After this the elvish civil war breaks out. All your units except loyal ones and scouts defect and serve Landar. So, see that Elvish Champion racking up the kills? Next time he's in battle he will be killing your units. After the tide of the battle has turned try and get the non-loyal high level units killed (attack those last two Oracles with ranged attack, etc).

If you have enough gold your main worries will be getting to the villages in time (scouts come in handy), getting to the northern leader in time and leaving as few good units for the civil war as possible.

1.10.1 (hard): It is not necessary to get your units killed consciously and this scenario is possible with fairly low gold (220 gold for me) by recruiting mainly veterans and exploiting the horrible saurian movement / defence on ice (low casualty approach). As the turn limit isn't very long, it is useful to send some rangers/avengers behind the saurian lines to start burning villages, as soon as they hide in a forest they are invisible to the AI. Constantly check the turn clock, and be as aggresive as possible during the day.

[stejoo]: It is indeed doable with lower amounts of gold. The advice of recruiting veterans is sound, soms level 2 help as they can regen when they level up. What helped best was the advice of exploiting the horrible Saurian movement on snow/ice, and they are also slow through forest tiles. I actively retreated during the night and let some units rest behind my new line. You can keep one unit in range of the snow, and try to pick a tile the Saurian can only get one unit on. Using your movement was key. I also moved Kalenz around and even moved him away fromy my mainstay. This drew off half of the Saurian forces, which really helped my regular forces to remain standing. I used the Outriders and an Avenger for taking villages and killing the Saurian leaders.

Council Ruling

Story only.

Elvish Assassins

• Objectives: Move Kalenz to the signpost
• Lose if: Kalenz or Cleodil dies or turns run out
• Turns: 20/16/12 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and Anduilas

There's no need to recruit - Kalenz can make it to the signpost with just the units you're given.

You might feel tempted to take this scenario as an opportunity to level up some new recruits from scratch, but this may not be a good idea. After a few turns, one of your elf allies (chosen at random) will turn against you, making the battle unpredictable and risky, for not a lot of gain.

There's just a couple of extra scenarios left in this campaign, and if you feel like leveling up units for the final battle, it's better to do it in the next scenario, where you can recall Cleodil's troops again.

Northern Battle

• Objectives: Defeat all enemy leaders or survive for six days
• Lose if: Kalenz, Cleodil or Uradredia dies or turns run out
• Turns: 40/36/32 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and Anduilas

This is the same map as Breaking the Siege, but since it's not winter, most of the board is grassland and woods, and much easier for your elves to fight on.

Landar, now one of your enemies, will be in the far southwest, while another enemy elf has a keep a little to the north from yours. Approximately two thirds of your non-loyal veterans, chosen at random, will go with Landar, while the remaining third will go with Uradredia.

If you have been building a formidable "air force" (Shaman line) you can beat this level very easily. Moreover, the objective description is not very faithful, since you don't really have to kill all enemy leaders. It suffices to move any of your units adjacent to Landar. This makes this scenario quite easy to beat. If you still have Huraldur (your loyal quick elvish rider) on your side and you have leveled him up, you can take him straight to Landar's keep, and—thanks to the vulnerable design of Landar's keep—place him next to Landar by turn 3, finishing the scenario with a huge gold reward. Alternatively, you may try a similar strategy with a group of new scout recruits or other quick units.

However, you can take the opportunity to level up a few recruits. Particularly, now could be a good time to level up any Shamans/Woses from Cleodil's old recall list to their maximum. Keep in mind that you need to put Cleodil in the Encampment Keep tile so you can recall those units.

Because of Landar's betrayal and the loss of most of your veterans, you will be working mostly with first level units. Consequently, don't try to take on either enemy on the naked grasslands where their keeps lie; recruit as much as you can, then head for your ally's keep in the north central region of the board, taking as many villages during the process as possible. If you need to, make a stand in and about your ally's keep, though depending upon how well you delay Crintil's army you may be able to pick off your enemy a few at a time in the forest long enough to survive until the end of the scenario.

Playing this scenario patiently has a nice side-effect: by killing Landar's strong veterans here, they won't be available to him in the final battle. As a consequence, if you completely wipe up his army now, he'll be stuck with just fresh level-1 and level-2 elves to recruit by then (unless you're playing on hard difficulty). Also, all of Uradredia's units will become yours, so if you have the chance to save some of his veterans in this scenario, it's worth doing it.

If you have some experienced Woses (highly resistant against pierce damage!), you can as well crush all the traitors frontally - as long as you engage them outside the forest - for an early finish and large bonus.

End of War

• Objectives: Defeat Landar
• Lose if: Kalenz or Cleodil dies or turns run out
• Turns: 24/21/18 (Easy/Medium/Hard)
• Starting units: Kalenz, Cleodil and any surviving loyal units

A relatively short and simple battle, considering this is the final scenario. Recall/recruit all worthy veterans, and don't worry about gold or grabbing villages. If you've made it this far, surely you have the necessary strategic/tactical skills necessary to deal with Landar's army. Now is the time to try risky ideas; this is the last stop for you and your army, so give them the chance to act heroically on the battle field.

A straightforward strategy involves recalling any remaining veteran troops, then recruiting an army of level 1 elves. Form up your line of battle at the edge of the forest to maximize the difference in defense (70% vs. 40%, while trying to hold the shore is only 40% vs. 20%). The forest defense bonus also means that your level 1 troops stand a good chace of surviving at least one round of two level 2 attacks (which they are unlikely to survive on open ground). If any enemy elves make it into the forest the best approach is to use magic attacks to smoke them out (a Sylph works wonders). Once Landar's army has been dealt with, sweep your troops down to the enemy keep to deliver the coup de grace.

Again, experienced Woses dominate your enemies outside of forests.

Epilogue

Story only.