TheEasternInvasion

This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.18+

In this campaign you play the role of Gweddry, a human Frontier Sergeant who has the responsibility of dealing with a powerful Lich who wants to destroy Wesnoth. As a sergeant, Gweddry has the potential to level up into a Grand Marshal, a level 4 unit that can empower his troops significantly through Leadership. You start with the support of a White Mage named Dacyn, who will be by your side throughout the campaign.

As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign.

Spoiler 1: Expect game-altering surprises and scenario modifiers that flip your strategy on its head. Every battle is a completely unique challenge!

Spoiler 2: Unit AMLA behavior has changed to grant +8 HP bonuses or +1 damage bonuses, and there are a handful of items that permanently change your unit's attributes. In other words, don't give up on the Spearman line just because it's bad against Skeletons in the early game.

Spoiler 3: There will come a point where you will have to choose your favorite 6-12 recalls, and abandon the rest. Therefore, it is better to have a small, diversified squad of elites than a large roster of redundant roles.

You'll probably want to level up at least two extra Mages of Light (other than Dacyn), and a few Arch/Silver Mages. Spearmen and Bowmen are highly effective if granted one of the many artifacts in the campaign that grant Arcane damage. Heavy Infantry are indispensable in the early game, but be wary of relying on them too much, since their low mobility will be a severe hindrance in several challenging scenarios.

The Outpost

• Objectives: Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 11
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.

Your 3 opponents will recruit slightly different units. The northernmost enemy will recruit Bats and skeleton troops, the middle one will recruit Walking Corpses, and the southern one will recruit skeletons including Bone Shooters and Revenants.

On turn 7, Dacyn will mysteriously disappear, and you'll briefly meet Mal-Ravanal, the leader of the undead, who summons tough ghost units and says mean things to the player. At end of turns, Dacyn returns and points out a trap door, near your starting fort, to exit the level. All of the enemy leaders will get a big gold boost -- there's no use fighting.

There are several approaches to this scenario, but the common factor in all of them is that 50% of your recruits should be heavy infantry, since their impact attacks are effective against skeletons, and they have excellent resistances against blade and pierce. Supplement with a few Magi -- if you can feed one enough EXP to obtain a second White Mage, you'll be in great shape. Fencers aren't much use, but you can use one to hold your western villages against Bats, or send one as fodder to occupy Walking Corpses.

Just hold out for the enemy attack during nighttime; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, your enemies will flee, but they'll be back stronger than ever on the second night. Don't try to push for the enemies' keeps, instead keep your path to the trap-door clear and fall back to Gweddry's starting keep if needed.

Escape Tunnel

• Objectives: Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 17/15/13 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
• Other:
  • Crystal Quiver in the Northeast cave
  • Treasure of 50 gold in Northeast cave

This scenario occurs in a small cave occupied by trolls and dwarves. You start on the far West of the map, and your mission is to take Gweddry all the way to the opposite side.

You'll be unable to recruit heavily on this small map, and a prolonged battle is folly against the swarms of Undead who will appear on turns 12/10/8. Instead, recruit/recall a Bowman and 1 other speedy unit at the small keep just east of Gweddry, then hoof it to the southern tunnel.

The Dwarves to your south are friendly and will distract the centrally-located Trolls for you. The trolls and undead are hostile to each other, as well as to you and the dwarves.

In the northeast, a Crystal Quiver is lightly guarded. This permanent item makes all the ranged attacks of the unit that picks it up of type Arcane and grants Illumination. Give it to a Bowman, since Magi already have effective Ranged damage versus undead, and all your other units are primarily melee.

You don't have enough time on this map to do much more than pick up the Quiver. However, you can use the eastern tunnel bottlenecks to slow-roll the Trolls and grant your Quiver-bearer some EXP, before escaping at the east end. Stepping on/through the last cave hex will trigger victory.

An Unexpected Appearance

• Objectives: Defeat either enemy leader.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 24
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
• Other:
  • Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
  • Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.

In this scenario you have to defeat one of the dark sorcerers on the edges of the map. Your next scenario will depend on the enemy you choose to kill. Killing the one to the West will take you to the Elven Alliance scenario, while the one to the East takes you to Ill Humors.

Going East is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings higher rewards: more EXP, loyal Dunefolk units, and/or loyal Paladin and Knights.

First, expel Mal-Tar out of your keep. Your leaders can't miss on their first turn, so a turn 1 kill is guaranteed. Then, prep for battle. You will be fighting assorted undead (in the West) and Vampire Bats and Ghosts (in the East). This is an easier scenario, so focus on leveling units: Magi, your Quiver-bearer, and Gweddry himself (get that Leadership bonus!). Strive for a big early finish bonus.

Approach 1 (going East): Send Magi and Spearmen east, along with a healer and Gweddry himself (once he's finished recruiting). Send your Quiver-bearer west with some Heavy Infantry and Mage backup (and a second White Mage if you have one). Neither Dark Sorcerer leaves their keep to fight, so you can bottleneck the Western enemy in the mountains and farm EXP, while the Spearmen and Magi press east.

Approach 2 (going East): Recruit the same troops, but send all east, using the Heavy Infantry as a rearguard, to minimize any losses on that flank.

Approach 3 (going West): Recruit more lightly and push West. You should be able to kill the Western enemy before the other enemy's forces can reach you.

Diverging Campaign Path

An Elven Interlude

• Objectives: Move any unit to the signpost in the northwest.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 25
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
• Other:
  • Addogin will join as a loyal unit if defeating him before capturing 10 villages

The warning about the assassin is overrated. The assassin disappears into the forest, but you won't bump into him, he'll just reappear when anyone dies.

Recruit / recall a wide assortment of units, mostly mages, spearmen and cavalry. Send mages and spearmen up to fight the opponent, send cavalry down as scouts. Any heavy infantry should go up to fight also; they will probably arrive late, and be good for reinforcements when the first troops are wounded.

Align the troops in the forest, so that the enemy will be on grass; this gives you a tactical advantage. Use Dacyn to heal those who need it most - those on the corners, and any mages who are on the front lines.

There is a village at {20,12} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it. Be careful grabbing villages that you don't accidentally get 10 -- if you do, the outlaws will flee and you'll lose the chance to gain Addogin, a loyal Outlaw. "Kill" him to add him to your roster and cause all his other forces to flee.

Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day. When the assassin appears, you may ignore it unless you have a unit close-by. In that case, use it to fight the assassin. Keep pressing up. It is possible to kill the orcish leader by turn 9 for a nice gold bonus.

Ill Humors

• Objective: Defeat Mal-Skraat
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 24/23/22.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
• Other:
  • An optional extra mission is possible
  • Any of your units that are adjacent to Swamp hexes will be Poisoned

You have two immediate concerns on this map: the antagonistic wildlife, and the toxic swamp. Recruit/recall a keep's worth of units to deal with the nearby Swamp Lizard, and grab nearby villages.

On Turn 2, you will be introduced to Hahid, a loyal Dune Apothecary, and his assistant Safyam, a Dune Burner. You'll also notice several Dunefolk units to the southwest. Hahid forms an alliance, and tells you to keep your units safe from the swamp by collecting alswdan herbs on specially marked, randomly placed tiles. Once you collect the 5th herb, Hahid will offer you 3 choices on how to proceed:

• Pay 50 gold to end the scenario and begin Mal-Ravanal's Capital, a challenging and rewarding bonus scenario inserted before Northern Outpost.
• Pay 0 gold to lose the Dunefolk from your team and proceed to Northern Outpost by killing Mal-Skraat.
• Pay 150 gold to add all dunefolk to your team permanently, then defeat the northwest leader and proceed to Northern Outpost.

Any of these options can succeed. However, bear in mind that the Dunefolk army all has the Mercenary ability, meaning they fight better when the player has gold, and worse when the player's gold is 0 or less. They are complex to manage, and may be a liability in larger battles.

To go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital: Send folks into the swamp to your east, and have Hahid and Safyam explore near where they appear. Fight off the swamp creatures, using White Magi to keep your team healthy. Don't over-recruit, and anticipate your team's upkeep costs! A nimble unit like a Fencer helps to snag faraway herbs quickly for a big finish bonus (you'll need it).

To recruit the dunefolk before Northern Outpost: Same strategy, but more scrappy.

To go directly to Northern Outpost, no dunefolk: you can collect 5 alswdan herbs and refuse to pay, or you can just kill Mal-Skraat. With corpses and bats, he's not much of a threat; the swamp poison is the scariest part.

Mal-Ravanal's Capital

• Objective: Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies
• Turns: n/a
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn

Only reachable from Ill Humors scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to Northern Outpost.

The main reason to get here, besides XP, is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin (a loyal unit) and several Knights. Focus on freeing the horsemen as quickly as possible. To do this, kill the 6 Deathblades guarding the cages (they will not attack unless you stand next to them first). Powerful ranged units like your Quiver-bearer and White Mages make the perfect assassins.

You have until Turn 10 until Mal-Ravanal notices Dacyn and gets serious. To free the cavalry in time, you'll probably need to split your forces up. Send your first recalls southeast towards the Paladin -- if you're lucky, you can free it on same turn you meet the victory condition. Soon after, send a small assassin squad [landofMordor: I used a White Mage and my Quiver-bearing Bowman] north to free the topmost Knight; once he's free, send him to reinforce another group and send your assassins due east to free the Knight there.

Now, while your hit squads are gallivanting around killing Deathblades, you need to occupy the bulk of Mal-Ravanal's forces. A healer and Heavy Infantry (or even Spearmen) can do the trick at the impassable bottleneck due east of your starting keep. Don't try to push forward or gain ground; instead, just hold the line and allow one or two units to come through the bottleneck at a time.

Finally, once Gweddry is finished recruiting, send him and any disposables southwest towards that Dark Sorcerer, freeing the Knight along the way. That crew should be enough to overwhelm the puny Walking Corpse army there, stall if needed until the Paladin is free, and fight your way free.

The Northern Outpost

• Objectives:
  • Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.
  • Defeat the undead leader.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 20.
• Starting units: All available from Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent, Addogin, and Hahid
• Other:
  • A holy amulet is located in the South-West.
  • Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.

This scenario is reachable from the Elven Alliance, Ill Humors, and Mal-Ravanal's Capital scenarios.

Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. It is a good idea to create a separate task force for each of a keep's worth of veterans. You won't have Dacyn for this mission (until the bandits are slain)

For the undead task force, send one non-impact melee unit to get the Amulet by the southwest temple, which makes all damage Arcane. That unit will have the damage output of a mage and the mobility and durability of a regular solider! That alone is enough to shred the undead to the north along with Gweddry, a healer, and a few disposable HI. Help Owaec's forces stay alive, if you can.

For the bandit task force, send about 5 units north to the villages. You might not need a healer, but prepare to fight L1 outlaws in Forest-heavy terrain. About 3 groups of enemies will spawn randomly, about 3 units in each group until the leader (a Rogue [easy] or Assassin) is found with a larger cadre of goons. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move, so be prepared to ambush the ambushers.

Upon defeating either leader, Owaec and his cavalry will join your roster. If the undead fall first, turn that task force to hunting outlaws.

Diverging Campaign Path

Undead Crossing & Capturing the Ogres

Undead Crossing

• Objective: Defeat the enemy leader.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 18.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.

You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.

A good general strategy can be something like the following: recall a couple of quick swordsmen (or about-to-level quick spearmen), two white mages, a red mage or multiple regular mages, and any units with holy amulets. Shock troopers are too slow. Send these units as quickly as possible Northwest through the swamp towards the Western crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall cavalry. The cavalry should run as fast as possible along the Southern board edge (so as to not attract undue attention from bats and swimming undead) and then up the Western crossing. You can divert a couple of cavalry and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the Western assault.

Now, this scenario has a nasty surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not all, as the undead leader summons a number of cuttlefish monsters (1, 2 or 4 according to the difficulty level: easy, medium or hard respectively), which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on turn number 10. Be very careful where to position your troops as the cuttlefish have a very nasty melee attack.

You have at least three options for the crossing. Option 1 is to just try to get a couple of your cavalry across each of the two crossings, while the rest of your units run like hell away from the water and swamp. Option 2 is to send across more units while tossing a spearman into the water as bait. Option 3 is to fight the cuttlefish, which is extremely hazardous. For a fight, maneuver your units to encourage the cuttlefish to separate, then use good melee troops backed by Gweddry (for leadership) and a white mage to kill them one at a time. Good luck. Make sure you leave your units enough time to cross the river and kill the undead leader before turns run out.

Leads to Capturing the Ogres.

Capturing the Ogres

• Objective: Capture the ogres.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies.
• Turns: Unlimited.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec.
• Other:
  • To add ogres to your army, "capture" them by ZoC-locking them.

This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recall ogres later, you need to "capture" them by surrounding them. Any ogre which cannot move more than one hex in every direction will be added to your recall list. Ogres which reach the rocky borders will "escape".

Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the scenario Lake Vrug) and in caves (in the scenario Captured). Being of neutral alignment, ogres can be helpful at night (especially in the scenario Weldyn Under Attack). It's best to capture at least two.

Soradoc & Ogre Crossing

Soradoc

• Objective: Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 24.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal unit
• Other:
  • Keep Yannic alive and talk to him with Owaec, or kill 3 enemy leaders, to recruit him later and get a Plague Staff in the next scenario.

Really difficult if you didn't go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital earlier and gain the Paladin and Knight(s).

Send your Paladin, Dacyn, Owaec, and a few other veterans due west immediately to assassinate the Death Knight there. If you have a Knight with a holy amulet, that's a good option. Owaec is needed in this group so he can rush up and talk to Yannic afterwards.

Send the rest of your army (at least 1 healer) due north post-haste. You need to smash through the base there and clear a path to the north. If you do well enough, you can even wipe out the other undead armies before completing the objective. The more leaders you defeat, the easier the next scenario will be.

On turn 4, Mal-Ravanal appears in the southeast corner, summons some high-level Ghosts (including Shadows) behind your lines, and peaces out. Be prepared for this ambush.

If you rescue Yannic and he doesn't die, he'll give you a Plague Staff in the next scenario. The Plague Staff might not be "good" per se, but it's awesome: it turns its bearer chaotic, allows it to recruit Walking Corpses, and grants it the Plague Staff attack. Later, Yannic will join your team just when you need him most.

Ogre Crossing

• Objective: Get Gweddry and Owaec across the river.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies or turns run out.
• Turns: 24.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • Special bonuses if the objective is completed while the Ogre leader is still alive:
    • Ogre leader joins you as recallable a loyal unit
    • All the other surviving Ogres can be recalled for half as much normal units (only 10 gold!)

Looking at the level, one might imagine the challenge in this scenario is crossing the wide river - where units are very vulnerable, and have very restricted mobility (particularly horses). However, this will likely prove to be the lesser of your concern: The Saurian force on the Northern bank is preoccupied with the Ogres for a good several turns, and the opponents going after you will be the Undead from the South (unless you killed them all in Soradoc).

However, you need the Ogre leader alive! The Ogres will need help against the Saurians, so scamper across with some Cavalry and/or fast Mages, bringing your leader in the rear. A few Nibblers will bar your way way but they are easily dispatched, once a unit arrives next to the far shore Grug (the Ogre leader) will have himself a big think and join your side immediately allowing you to control him and his fellow ogres. All of those that survive we be recallable for only 10 gold (as opposed to the normal 20), but importantly you can only recall the survivors not recruit any more ogres!

Xenophobia

• Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec die or turns run out.
• Turns:
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • A Shield near the Dwarves' keep.
  • You will have 100% gold carryover, but 0 starting gold, for the next several scenarios. Save up!

This is a fun and silly level as all parties in the scenario (i.e. Naga, Orcs, Dwraves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming alliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units and pick up another permanent item. This one, near the Dwarvish keep, is a shield that will redirect all damage from adjacent allies to the shield-bearer! It's tricky to use, but consider giving it to an expendable Spearman and using him as an extra ~40 HP for the units who matter, if (or likely when) he dies have another expendable unit pick it up to replace him.

You can likely split 2 keepfuls of troops between a Northern strike force and a Eastern one. The North force will eliminate the Dwarves and rejoin the main Eastern force, which can sweep north through Orc territory and then south to the Naga. Capture and hold as many villages as you can, and give as much EXP to Gweddry and other desired units (prioritizing loyal ones is a good option). If you don't have a few extra White Mages already now is a good time to get them.

If you have 500 gold, you should be pretty set for the next scenarios. You can survive with as little as 300.

Castle In The Ice

• Objective: Move to the castle stronghold
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: n/a
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • The intense cold damages your troops every turn.
  • Cold damage intensifies the longer you spend in this scenario.

Basically: follow the path through the fog to the castle, defeating the Drakes and wild beasts along the way. Your core loyal units are more than enough for this task.

Optional: There's a 1-hex keep close to the first village you find. You can send Grug and an extra healer southeast from there, defeat the group of Ghosts, and continue onwards to find another group of Ogres. Those Ogres will join your team if you have Grug, unlocking an achievement.

Even further along the Ogre route, you'll find a L4 Yeti. Defeating it will grant 1 unit immunity from cold and double it's base hitpoints. Giving it to Grug makes him the tankiest of lads and a good choice for the magic shield item.

Don't recall more than 1 extra healer. You'll need your gold later!

Dark Sanctuary

• Objective: Move Dacyn, Gweddry, and reinforcements into Mal-Ravanal's sanctuary, defeating the leader
• Lose if: Death of Gweddry, Dacyn, or Owaec
• Turns: n/a
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • 100% gold carryover with 0 starting gold
  • Dacyn will have better outcomes stepping on runes
  • Night lasts longer here

Recall 4-6 reinforcements into Dacyn's creepy gate (fewer than 6 if you're sending some of your loyal units in). Your main enemies are ghostly and skeletal units, but there will also be Goblins and Ants, so bring a mix of units and roles. Moreover, you'll have 3 separate special items to collect (more on that later), which will help you feed EXP to mid-level units. Recruiting a few L2 people will also save you some upkeep costs.

Owaec will loiter outside and have to repel several incursions from Orcish armies. Use fresh L1 Spearmen to force the Orcs to fight from the snow, giving Owaec most of the XP. (Grug can help, too, if you didn't send him inside.)

Inside the chambers, you'll have 2 directions to go, southwest and northeast. You can split up your forces after killing the Wyvern and grabbing its gold pile.

Southwest group: You'll be facing L0-L1 Goblins in groups of 4-6. Bring a healer. The special item on this corridor is the red vial inside the potion room at {15, 13} -- it grants Steadfast and Healthy to its drinker. The unit who gains the most from doubled resistances is, funny enough, Cavalry, since troops like Heavy Infantry can't have their resistances doubled past 50%. (All other potions are not beneficial). After picking up this potion, head south to find one door key. The Goblins in this room can be distracted by stepping on the rune at the end of the corridor, which releases two Ghouls into the Goblin chamber (or all of them if Darcyn is the one to step the rune).

Northeast group: You'll face several Ghost/Wraith, one Deathblade/Draug, and some optional units. Use a mage to cook the skeleton guarding the library; Ghosts will spawn afterward. Fight through to get the second door key. Go southeast from this room (avoiding the floor runes) and you'll find a cave full of Ants, and a collapsed wall leading to a treasure room. Upon entering this area, a Djinn will spawn and attack.

After killing the Djinn, collect the Holy Amulet, treasure, and Baneblade from the room. The Baneblade is a 7x4 draining Arcane attack, but has the Berserk ability, so it's a mixed blessing. I'm not sure who wields it best, but Heavy Infantry and Pikeman are solid options. The treasure room can be opened from the inside.

After obtaining both keys and moving both strike forces back to the central chamber, a large group of low-level monsters will spawn. Fight onto the second creepy platform, then charge the Death Knight leader to end the scenario.

Captured

• Objective: Rescue Gweddry, Dacyn, and Owaec, then escape through the South-West tunnel.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: Unlimited, then 16.
• Starting units: Rescue leader and two sidekicks.
• Other:
  • No recruiting, but a group of your veterans will be available.
  • The door to a large gold reserve will be unlocked after the orcish leader dies

Three of your recall troops will escape from a cell and plot a rescue operation. The scenario tries to select a level 3, level 2, and level 1 unit, but it is possible to end up with many variations. At first, they're unarmed, so flee the Bats you find, first running west and then south. You'll retrieve your weapons, and then one group member will don a disguise to sneak past the guards.

The disguised unit can open any cell door to release the prisoners within. Try to select a cell containing ogres or Knights; a quick ogre has the best chance of reaching and opening another cell in the same turn. Upon releasing prisoners, your leaders will also seek the fight; you'll have to keep Dacyn alive by fleeing to the spot of shallow water to his northeast, and shielding him from attacks using Gweddry and Owaec.

If you're fast and lucky, you can kill the Orcish leader before many reinforcements arrive. This will unlock the orcs' treasure horde from a cell. Then, move Owaec to the Southwest tunnel to end the level, farming XP with your other units as you go.

Losses in this scenario are not a big deal, as you're only going to be able to bring a fraction of your recall list past the next scenario, which is likely to kill off all but a few veterans. However, the steady stream of orc reinforcements can provide one last chance to level key units for Evacuation, the next scenario.

Evacuation

• Objective: Destroy the bridge with Owaec
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
• Turns: 12.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • Every unit not on the South side of the river when the bridge is destroyed will be lost (including units in your recall list).

Obviously, recall everybody you care about, including your item-bearers. This will be about 12 recalls total. Afterwards, gold permitting, recruit a keepful of Spearmen to distract the Wolves for another turn or two.

Don't get caught fighting; don't expose units to ZOC-lock. Keep your healers in the center and press southwest in tempo with your slowest evacuees. Don't go so slowly that the Drakes can cut you off in front.

Once you get bottle-necked on the bridge, hold a large enough rearguard of expendables that the people you do care about don't get ZOC-locked by flying Drakes while trying to cross the span. If you make it out with 5-10 veterans in addition to the special-item-bearers, then count yourself lucky!

The Spoils of War

An easier mission to help rebuild your forces. Terraent (if you have him) or Owaec will need to free groups of prisoners, who arrive alternating between Northern and Southern routes. The most critical prisoner to free is a special, loyal Dark Adept who will arrive from the south -- it's very worthwhile leveling them up.

Note that each group will be freed once the Deathblade named "guard" is slain. Bats will spawn after each freeing and chase the nearest cluster of units -- you can exploit this behavior to protect your weaker units.

Once all groups are freed, kill the southern enemy leader.

The Drowned Plains

• Objective: Defeat the 3 enemy leaders.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
• Turns:
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units
• Other:
  • Walking Corpses, Soulless, and Ghouls will ambush you from the swamp
  • Sighting any enemy leader will cause stronger waves of the undead
  • A holy amulet is located on the southwest bank of the lake.

After a little bit of narrative, Dacyn will find himself heavily damaged, surrounded by 6 hexes of impassable pit, and beset by several high-level Ghost units! To rescue him, create a buffer of ZOC with your loyal units, and recall a strong Mage to barbeque the ghosts. Dacyn will shortly thereafter lose his ability to illuminate or cure, due to Mal-Ravanal's dark influence, so recall an extra healer to help against Ghoul poison.

Each castle is strongly defended, so it doesn't make sense to split up your main army. However, a few speedier scouts (including, perhaps, the Merfolk you rescued last scenario) are useful to capture and hold some of the far-flung villages. Then, recall a force of veterans who will be able to take on armies of 8-10 level 2/3 undead units, and head due south.

The southern-most castle will recruit Chocobones and Skeleton Riders when you get line-of-sight on the keep. Keep your units bunched up so that they can't be surrounded and killed by the Chocobones' charge attacks. Also, the Walking Corpse ambushes will intensify once you sight any enemy leader.

To the southwest lies Khrakrahs, a level-4 Skeletal Dragon who recruits L2-3 Undead. Yikes. His infernal aura makes lower-level troops fight worse [1.18.0 this won't necessarily be reflected in the combat preview, unless your unit begins adjacent to Khrakrahs]. Use Gweddry's Leadership to counteract this, and then burn Khrakrahs down with Mages.

To the northwest is another skeletal horseman, who recruits more undead mounted units and Ghouls. Compared to Khrakrahs, a walk in the park.

Return to Wesnoth

Story only.

Weldyn Under Attack

• Objective: Survive until end of turns.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.
• Turns: 18.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, loyal units, Konrad II.
• Other:
  • At the end of this scenario you will have to choose whether to fight Mal-Ravanal directly in a duel, or repel his invasion with all you've got. This dictates the final scenario you'll play for this campaign.

At scenario start, you find your keep in the center of an island. Three allied leaders also have their keeps on the island around yours. There are six enemy leaders surrounding Weldyn.

Dacyn will turn into a "nega-Mage of Light" during this scenario, complete with a dark aura ability. Don't count on him to heal your troops!

Super ambitious: Kill all the enemy leaders, possibly with a strike force of fast Paladins and Magi to break through at the south and then sweep clockwise.

Medium ambitious: Just hold the lines of Weldyn, keeping your allied generals alive (gets much harder around Turn 10, but easier again around Turn 14).

Conservative: Just hold the inner island of Weldyn, abandoning the allied generals completely. This is really easy to defend, and Konrad will be able to fight here, but you lose out on some upside.

At the end of the battle, Gweddry will be able to choose whether to duel Mal-Ravanal (easier), or take on his whole army (possibly unlocks a bonus scenario).

Diverging Campaign Path

The Duel

• Objective: Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
• Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.
• Turns: Unlimited.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn.
• Other:
  • You can only recruit for the first turn.

This is a somewhat strange scenario: you get to recall/recruit exactly five units and then have to fight Mal-Ravanal and his six chosen troops. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite manageable. Your goal is to attack first and hit hard—you should be able to eliminate two or three enemy units before they even get the chance to attack.

Except for Konrad II, you will have all of your units available in the recall list (including Owaec). Recall mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Advance onto the battlefield, but stop just short of the enemies' range. After the enemies move closer, concentrate your attacks on a few of their units, particularly those with the strongest attacks. "Cowardly" Gweddry may be able to grant leadership bonuses to your troops, however he should probably refrain from actual fighting so he does not accidentally get killed.

Try to finish the fight quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and revives dead units as lower-level copies of themselves. If you position a weak unit within Mal-Ravanal's movement range, the arrogant lich will gleefully charge out onto the battlefield and leave himself wide open for your counterattack. Owaec's hammer should make short work of him.

Weldyn Besieged

• Objective: Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
• Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies, any enemy unit reaches your keep, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.
• Turns: Unlimited.
• Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Terraent, Grug, Konrad II.

This battle is intended as a substantial challenge, and is inadvisable with low gold or an inadequate recall list. You face off against seven enemy leaders, with the goal of finding and eliminating Mal-Ravanal among them. The liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario (the names are randomly assigned when you attack). Attacking a lich gives it a small boost of gold, but killing the wrong lich gives every other lich extra gold.

A quick scout unit can charge past the undead hordes to attack and identify a lich. Once you've found Mal-Ravanal, send Dacyn and any mounted arcane-attack units to attack. You can draw Mal-Ravanal out of the keep by positioning a sacrificial horseman nearby. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the battle in a single turn.

Meanwhile you'll need the rest of your troops to hold the central keep against the undead onslaught. If you can spare the funds, a few sacrificial troops can delay the incoming enemies on one side, giving you the opportunity to focus your firepower on the undead approaching from the other side(s). Note, however, that each enemy killed causes the lich to recruit another. If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.