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This is a discussion of The Eastern Invasion, the campaign featuring Gweddry General of Wesnoth.
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:''This walkthrough is in the process of being updated for version 1.18+''
  
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''This walkthrough has been updated by Maiklas3000 to reflect changes up to version 1.8.3 on hard and previously by Crus4a7E for up to version 1.4.5 on medium. Feel free to add your own updates.''
 
  
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'''Warning: spoilers ahead!'''
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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.
  
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This is a campaign where you may wish to read ahead to see what you will be facing. In particular, you might wish to read about the scenarios Captured, Evacuation and Weldyn Under Attack in order to plan ahead.
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As any other walkthrough, this document describes plot details that can be considered spoilers. This is particularly true for this campaign.
  
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=== The Outpost ===
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Spoiler 1: Expect game-altering surprises and scenario modifiers that flip your strategy on its head. Every battle is a completely unique challenge!
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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.
  
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The best approach is to recruit heavy infantry and optionally a mage (who should not be expected to survive.) Build a line using the heavy infantry, using the castle hexes and other hexes to the northwest. When and if you have more money available later, purchase additional heavy infantry.
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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.  
  
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Just hold out for the enemy attack during night time; only rotate wounded units if possible, but do not counter-attack. At dawn, start your counter-attack without worrying too much about keeping the original line intact. Instead, try to level 2 or 3 HI to Shock Troopers. The enemy's forces quickly will cease to be any danger to yours.
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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.
  
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Also, around turn 12 the white mage returns and points out a trap door you should use. (Note that this trap door will be near your starting fort, so you'll either need to hold the fort or be prepared to get back to it by turn 16).
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=== The Outpost ===
  
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Position your leader near the trap door, so he can reach it in one turn. As it is almost impossible to finish with more than 100 gold (which is the minimum starting gold of the next level), use the remaining turns to level as many units as possible and only move your leader onto the trap door in the very last turn.
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* '''Objectives''': Defend the outpost, then move Gweddry to the trapdoor.
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* '''Lose if''':  Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 11
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
  
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Using this strategy, you may be able to finish with a couple of shock troopers, as well as adding experience to your other units.
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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.  
  
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On challenging, this scenario is quite, hmm, challenging. These tactics can succeed, but alternatively you can try purchasing a couple of calvary to use as a diversionary force, capturing enemy villages and running away, taunting and distracting the enemy.
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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.
  
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=== Escape Tunnel ===
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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.
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* Objectives: Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel
 
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* Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out
 
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* Turns: 26/24/22 (easy/medium/hard)
 
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* Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn
 
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* Other
 
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** Permanent holy amulet in north
 
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** Treasure of 200 gold in southeast
 
  
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Don't bother recalling Heavy Infantry, as they go too slow in caves. Go for a group of mostly Mages, and a couple of Spearmen. (One keep of units in total should easily be enough.)
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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.
  
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The map is quite small. Bypass the fights that you can until you have the bulk of your units in the safety of the dwarf leader's keep area. When you are just moving Gweddry along, be opportunistic and get some experience. Move your units to the east until you encounter trolls and reach a crossroads. A couple of dwarves will kindly become your allies and keep off the trolls for a few turns.
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=== Escape Tunnel ===
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* '''Objectives''': Move Gweddry to the end of the tunnel.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 17/15/13 (Easy/Medium/Hard).
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** Crystal Quiver in the Northeast cave
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** Treasure of 50 gold in Northeast cave
  
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There is a holy amulet to the north (and unlike in other campaigns this holy amulet is permanent!). Send a quick Spearman there or Gweddry. Giving Gweddry the holy amulet (instead of a Spearman) allows him to level very quickly, which is important, since he can advance to Grand Marshal. This gives benefits in other ways on a number of later scenarios as well, such as the River Crossing, where you can get an easy first turn kill against the undead leader and take his castle.  Note that the leader is very hard to kill anyway.
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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.
  
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As soon as you have got the holy amulet start to move all your units south without bothering about the trolls or the undead, which appear after a number of turns from the direction of your keep.
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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.
  
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The undead, trolls and dwarves will all fight each other, so after having moved all your units south position one Spearman at the end of the cave leading south (so only one unit a turn can attack him) and position the White Mage right behind him to heal it every turn. These two units should easily keep of the enemies following you until the end of the scenario. Move Gweddry to the northeast accompanied by a Mage and a Spearman (to fight individual trolls coming your way).
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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.  
  
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Before moving Gweddry to the end of the cave (which ends the level) send the Mage to the east past the funny signpost warning you of the troll hole. In the cave the Mage discovers a chest containing a troll treasure amounting to 200 gold.
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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.
  
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[Thrash: Alternately, I used predominately Heavy Infantry on this level. I found (on medium) they were tough enough to hold the central cave and pretty much beat the trolls into submission long enough for Gweddry to run north to the the amulet and then cover his retreat south, only then recruiting a mage when the troll numbers were lower. With other units, I had problems with the trolls overrunning them and getting Gweddry trapped to the north. Also a heavy infantry in the village by your starting fort will hold off the undead for a long time.]
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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 ===
 
=== An Unexpected Appearance ===
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* Objectives: Defeat either enemy leader
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* '''Objectives''': Defeat either enemy leader.
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* Lose if: Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies or turns run out.
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* Turns: 20/20/20 (easy/medium/hard)
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* '''Turns''': 24
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* Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* Other: your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat
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* '''Other''':
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** Your next scenario depends on which leader you defeat.
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** Both Dacyn and Gweddry never miss when they attack on turn 1.
  
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What you do in this scenario depends on which way you want to go. Going east is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings you more reward, such as the chance to go to Mal-Ravanal's Capital, which gives you the opportunity to get extra experience (a lot for whoever survives) and a free Paladin and several Knights.
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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''.
  
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First kill Mal-Tar to get your keep. To do this, shoot him with Dacyn and attack him with Gweddry's melee. If you don't kill him the first turn, second turn kill him with Dacyn so Gweddry can recruit. You will be fighting a mix of undead and bats, so recruit Heavy Infantry and Mages (if you gave the amulet to a Spearman in the previous scenario, recall him, too). Dacyn might be wounded, so send him to a village. Don't worry, he can fend for himself, since the bats usually arrive one at a time and he can kill one per turn.
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Going East is more difficult, especially on hard, but brings higher rewards: more EXP, loyal Dunefolk units, and/or loyal Paladin and Knights.
  
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On easy or medium (or hard going west), the attackers should be no problem, so focus on leveling units. If you move quickly you should only need to fight the attackers from one leader. Of course you can have some of your units double back to engage the second set.
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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.
  
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===Diverging Campaign Path===
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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.
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==== Elven Alliance ====
 
  
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The Orc's warning about the assassin is overrated; Volas can probably take care of it himself, although you might want to leave ONE unit near him to make sure.
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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.
  
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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.
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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.
  
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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.
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=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
  
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There is a village at {20,8} that can prove tactically very useful, because the elves usually fight somewhere near it.
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==== An Elven Interlude ====
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The elves are defeated most of the time, and the orcs claim this village; it is crucial to kill the orc on this village and take it over with a resilient spearman, or a HI.
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* '''Objectives''': Move any unit to the signpost in the northwest.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 25
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** Addogin will join as a loyal unit if defeating him before capturing 10 villages
  
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Once you have gotten past turn 6, it will be day, and the orcs will be very easy to defeat. When the assassin appears on turn 7, ignore it unless you have a cavalryman still down there. 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.
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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.
  
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==== The Undead Border Patrol ====
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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.
  
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This scenario also depends on which way you want to go. If going NW, it is fairly straightforward. The enemy is relatively weak. Do the same as in Unexpected Appearance - recruit 2 suicide cavalrymen to distract the bats. One will probably get enough XP to be worth recalling.
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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.
  
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I would use mostly heavy infantry and spearmen with the holy amulet on this level, because mages will only get a +10% to hit from magical. However, as in most scenarios against undead, white mages are very useful.
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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.
  
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Try to get the opponent to fight you from the sand. This gives you something like a 70% CTH. >)
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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.
  
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(CTH = Chance To Hit).
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==== Ill Humors ====
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* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Skraat
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 24/23/22.
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
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* '''Other''':
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** An optional extra mission is possible
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** Any of your units that are adjacent to Swamp hexes will be Poisoned
  
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If you go East, expect to take some time getting over the river and through the swamp. A small force recruited to defend the fort will keep troops from the NW off of your backside and they'll pick up a good amount of experience in the process.
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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.
  
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===== Mal-Ravanal's Capital =====
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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:
  
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Only reachable from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' scenario, but you might also skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.
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* Pay 50 gold to end the scenario and begin ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'', a challenging and rewarding bonus scenario inserted before ''Northern Outpost''.
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* Pay 0 gold to lose the Dunefolk from your team and proceed to ''Northern Outpost'' by killing Mal-Skraat.
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* Pay 150 gold to add ''all'' dunefolk to your team permanently, then defeat the northwest leader and proceed to ''Northern Outpost''.
  
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This is a very challenging scenario. I started with only 100 gold, so I recalled one Mage, two Shock Troopers, one Heavy Infantry, and my holy Halberdier. I defended the starting castle for about 10 turns until the Revenants had made their way over to me. Upon killing several of them, I freed some imprisoned Knights and a Paladin. I moved my forces to kill the Death Knight, and then split my forces. I sent one group to attack Mal-Ravanal and the other to kill the Necromancer in the NW corner. By turn 30, my Eastern assault force was in postion to attack Mal-Ravanal. However, when I attacked him, he teleported my troops back to the starting castle, so I wasn't able to defeat him. When I was ready, I killed the NW Necromancer and progressed to <i>The Northern Outpost</i>.
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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.  
  
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The reason to go here is to acquire a cavalry force of one Paladin and five Knights. To do this kill the 6 Revenants guarding the cages, but note the number of Knights available is reduced by one for each of your troops that die *after you rescue the first one*. You might want to make sure any expendable troops are "expended" before this. Each rescued unit pops in with full moves.
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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).
  
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If you just want to rescue the paladin and 5 knights and get out (in 1.6), this is how I finished that by turn 8. The horses were captive in 6 cages, 4 in a northern loop and 2 in a southern loop. First turn, I sent a quick shock trooper, quick heavy, and a white mage (not Dacyn) around the northern loop, looping from bottom to top (start at bottom knight, end at paladin). I looped that way to clear the middle ASAP and escape the oncoming troops. Also first turn, I sent 3 shock troopers around the southern loop, looping from top to bottom. If you encounter resistance, kill it quick or run as required, and instead focus on killing the guards fast, which conveniently don't hit back. On turn 2, I recruited another keep full of recruits and immediately sent everyone else to take out the northwestern leader. Time it so you kill the northwestern leader just as the last horses are rescued. It is by no means easy, but this way I managed to lose only a few HI types while picking up all 6 horses.
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To recruit the dunefolk before ''Northern Outpost'': Same strategy, but more scrappy.
  
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[elvish_sovereign] (1.8.2 Normal) An alternate strategy for the above if you have more leveled mages than leveled HI's. It also requires that you gave the Holy Amulet to Gweddry. I sent a single quick Shock Trooper due south (recruited on the southern-most hex on the starting castle), which promptly took out the southern Revenant on turn 3. Forget about the villages, it'll only delay you. I sent Dacyn due north, a quick RM go take out the second from the bottom Revenant, and a quick HI and a WM with Gweddry to take out the middle-couple Revenants. I also recruited two HI's to stop the advance and distract the two Dark Sorcerers' troops. After Gweddry and the WM take out the third from the bottom Revenant, send that Knight south. After taking out the Revenant with the RM, send the RM, Shock Trooper, and the three Knights in the direction of the SW Dark Sorcerer. Meanwhile, Gweddry, the WM, and the HI take out the third from the top Revenant, and then get Gweddry the hell outta there with the WM. have Dacyn free the Paladin first, then have the remaining Knights, HI, and the Paladin take out the remaining Revenant and hold out in the north. As Gweddry is fleeing and th e final Revenants are being felled, break through the SW Dark Sorcerer's lines (which should be easy if you distracted them properly) with the RM and the Shock Trooper, and send the three Knights to knock him into oblivion. I finished on turn 8 with no losses, but had some near-death moments.
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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.
  
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[Thrash] My take on justing getting the paladin and 5 knights quickly is you want to send units in parallel to attack the NW enemy and free as many of the knights at the same time. The trick is you free the knights and then kill the NW leader right after before all your troops get overwhelmed by units from the East. Time of day is critical - if you can get to the revenants before dusk, a white mage or shock trooper can kill them in one turn, after that it will take two turns or a little help (like a previously freed knight). Gweddry, even with an amulet, will probably take 3 turns to kill one, but with his one turn head start, that's OK. With one fort of recruits (2 white mages and 4 shock troopers), I was able to free 5 of the 6 and kill the NW enemy leader on turn 6. I sent 3 shock troopers and a white mage at the NW enemy, diverting one of those to freeing the 6th knight probably would have gotten me 6 out of the 6.
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==== Mal-Ravanal's Capital ====
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* '''Objective''': Escape from the capital by killing one of the two dark sorcerers.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies
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* '''Turns''': n/a
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* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn
  
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=== The Northern Outpost ===
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Only reachable from ''Ill Humors'' scenario, but you may skip it and go directly to ''Northern Outpost''.
  
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This scenario is reachable both from ''The Undead Border Patrol'' and the ''Elven Alliance'' scenarios.
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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.
  
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Here, there are two enemies that you must defeat: the undead and the outlaws. You will create a separate task force for each.
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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.
  
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The undead are fairly straightforward to defeat, and in any case Owaec usually does a good part of the work. To finish off the undead, it's useful to have a white mage, since Dacyn has gone AWOL for this scenario. If you don't have a white mage, you can try recruiting a few mages or else go back one or more scenarios and promote a mage to white mage. In addition to the mages or white mage, recall whomever picked up the holy amulet in one of the previous scenarios and have them accompany Gweddry to the southeast. If Gweddry is the one with the holy amulet and you have a white mage, then you can supplement them with a mage. You should also send a horseman or quick spearman to pick up the new holy amulet in the southwest.
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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.
  
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By contrast to the undead, the outlaws require a novel strategy. Recruit/recall fast units, e.g., calvary and horsemen. You may supplement them by recalling quick spearmen and quick shock troopers. The challenge is that criminals will sometimes appear randomly around the villages you flag. Therefore, before flagging a village, position as many healthy units as you can immediately around it. Note that you will get a chance to kill any newly appeared outlaws before they get a move. Outlaws will not appear in the villages that Owaec flags, so don't worry about him uncovering enemies for you. Send your outlaw hunting posse up the eastern side of the map flagging one village a turn and fighting the bandits. One of the villages has the assassin that is the outlaw leader, and there are a lot of villages, so speed is of the essence.
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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.
  
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Once your undead task force has finished the undead, form them into a second outlaw hunting posse, transferring units as needed from the first posse.
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=== The Northern Outpost ===
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* '''Objectives''':
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** Find the outlaw leader in the villages and kill him.
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** Defeat the undead leader.
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* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn or Owaec dies, or turns run out.
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* '''Turns''': 20.
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* '''Starting units''': All available from Gweddry, Dacyn, Terraent, Addogin, and Hahid
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* '''Other''':
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** A holy amulet is located in the South-West.
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** Owaec joins your team after the fight is over.
  
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When you come across the village where the bandit leader hides, divert any available units to the battle, as the bandits have a bite.
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This scenario is reachable from the ''Elven Alliance'', ''Ill Humors'', and ''Mal-Ravanal's Capital'' scenarios.
  
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Note: A Cavalry force (such as the one acquired in Mal-Ravanal's Capital) makes short work of the bandits. Lower level units have trouble against the bandits, especially at night.
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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)
  
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Also note, that from this scenario on you can recruit horsemen. You might want to level up a paladin or two, for fast mobile undead removal services (and quick leader assasination).
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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.  
  
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/* governor */ Just a note: I had the misfortune of taking a group of men to a village where 5or6 enemies appeared. After taking heavy damage, I retreated my char (low on hitpoints) out of the village. When I recaptured the village the same group of enemies reappeared. Since AI enemies seem to prefer recapturing villages this can allow you to obtain easy experience for weak units a few times.
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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.
  
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[Thrash] When I played, Oweac only recruited a couple mages, so he needed significant help as they get slaughtered quickly - I'd say 3-4 units. Also you don't really need to surround a village before flagging it, just have units in range to sweep in and attack if bandits pop out; this can save you some turns as move around as you can send one unit in to flag a village and move the rest on if nothing appears. Finally, the outlaw leader ran away when I played, so be prepared to chase him down.
+
Upon defeating either leader, Owaec and his cavalry will join your roster. If the undead fall first, turn that task force to hunting outlaws.
  
−
=== Two Paths ===
+
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
−
This is a fairly tough level (played in V 1.4.5 on medium difficulty) which took several attempts to get through. In V 1.4.5 you have 16 turns (unlike 12 as in earlier versions) and can choose between going north to attack the orc leader or going north-west to attack the undead leader.
 
  
−
One option is going north on the very east side of the map trying to fight your enemies from solid ground and mountains while they stand on sand ground with weak defense. As your troops move very slowly on this terrain, you will likely take some heavy losses however, as your enemies keep surrounding you. Also this will presumably take too many turns to reach the orc leader in time.
+
==== 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.
  
−
Thus the preferred choice is to recall a couple of shock troopers and white mages and move them on the path to the north-west in a tight formation towards the undead leader. Once you survived the first enemy onslaught without loosing units, the rest of this scenario becomes rather easy as the remaining enemies come one by one. Make sure to keep on moving fast to the north-west to reach the undead leader before turns run out.
+
You need to cross the river, but not without first defeating a necromancer who is occupying a small island to the North.
  
−
On hard (and version 1.8.3), what will probably work better is an all-out suicidal calvary charge to assassinate the undead leader as quickly as possible.
+
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.
  
−
It's worth noting that killing the orc leader results in what appears to be a easier and more rewarding subsequent scenario (The Crossing) than killing the undead leader (Undead Crossing).
+
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.
  
−
=== Diverging Campaign Path===
+
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.
−
==== Undead Crossing ====
 
−
Spoiler ahead... this scenario has a surprise that will be explained below.
 
  
−
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 eastern crossing. Meanwhile, recruit/recall calvary. The calvary 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 calvary and Owaec to snatch up villages and then those units can join the eastern assault.
+
Leads to ''Capturing the Ogres''.
  
−
Now for the surprise... Once you have fought off the bats and skeletons, you will find this was not your biggest challenge, as the undead leader summons two or three cuttlefish, which appear in the water between the two crossings. These always appear on the same turn number. 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 calvary 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.
+
'''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.
  
−
==== The Crossing ====
 
  
−
I had only 100 gold, so recruited some units and went straight north from turn one on. The fighting in the water was quite hard, with some orcs coming down from the north. The un-dead only appeared when I was in the middle of the river, so no encounter with them, and the ogre's helped get rid of the orcs on the north side. (Allefant)
+
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".
  
−
If you have Holy Gweddry, you can (sometimes) get a 1st turn kill on the 1st undead leader, scarf up all the villages, and return to kill the 2nd undead forces before their leader can recruit anything. If you don't, the second undead leader will recruit lots of level two units.  The orcs will start out across the river, but usually most of them turn back to fight the ogre reinforcements.  Waiting till their first wave hits your shore and wiping them out in the water will probably leave you just enough time to cross the river and find there are only 2 or 3 enemy units left besides the leaders.
+
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.
  
−
[Thrash] I don't think the above is realistic in 1.8.3. The leader is a Revenant with 47HP, both Gweddry (lvl 2) and Oweac (lvl 1) together would have to hit 100% to dish that out in one turn. He does come out to grab a village though, and Dacyn can make short work of him on turn 2.
+
==== 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.
  
−
Make sure to cover your rear flank with some expendable troops (such as Heavy Infantry) as the undead can move more quickly through the water than your units. Alternately, if you kill the first wave of undead quickly enough (by turn 3), you can make it across the river before the second wave catches you from behind.
+
Really difficult if you didn't go to '''Mal-Ravanal's Capital''' earlier and gain the Paladin and Knight(s).
  
−
Another strategy is to go straight into the water after killing the first undead leader using the deep water in the middle of the path to seperate the orc forces. You go to the right with Gweddry and Owaec and some support troops while letting the ogres kill many of the orcs in your way.  Knights and a Paladin can hold off the orcs enough to get across while the undead behind you are not an issue.
+
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.
  
−
Note:  Owaec can move only one hex a turn in the water.
+
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.
  
−
Important: If the ogre leader is alive at the end of the scenario, he agrees to help you, which results in the following bonuses: he joins you as a loyal unit, you get two free Ogres, you gain the ability to recruit Young Ogres, and you skip "Training the Ogres" scenario and go directly to "Xenophobia".
+
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.
−
(shadowblack)
 
  
−
[Thrash] I had problems with the Ogre leader dying before I could get to him. Sending Oweac into the river on turn 1 seemed to draw enough of the orcs south to solve this problem.
+
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.
  
−
=== Training the Ogres ===
+
'''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!)
  
−
*This scenario was missing in 1.6.
+
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'').  
  
−
This can be a confusing scenario to understand. Basically, your three units just have to survive. However, if you want to be able to recruit young ogres later, you need a couple of the ogres to not reach the rocky borders where they will "escape", whereby they seem to disappear into thin air. You have a couple of options for accomplishing this. Option 1 is to run. To keep ogres in the area, you wind up running in a circle, probably with Gweddry. However, running in a circle, Gweddry cannot outrun ogres and he will not survive repeated attacks from multiple ogres. Therefore, you need some of the ogres to "escape", which you can arrange by having Gweddry run close to the rocky border. Option 2 is to fight and kill some of the ogres, but this is hazardous. Or you could try a combination of these options.
+
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!
−
 
 
−
Being able to recruit young ogres allows you to promote them to ogres, which do middling damage, but unfortunately can't advance beyond level 2. Ogres are especially mobile on mountains (such as in the later 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''). Perhaps less obvious is that even young ogres are quite useful. Given their low, low price of 15 gold, they make good spam, attracting attention from the enemy and soaking up a lot of damage before they die.
 
  
 
=== Xenophobia  ===
 
=== 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. elves, orcs, drawves, and yourself) decide to fight each other instead of forming aliances. The scenario is not very difficult, so you can use this time to gain some experience for your units, pick up another permanent holy amulet (in the north, roughly in the middle between the dwarf and the orc keep), and train ogres (see below).
+
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 have two obvious options: attack the elves first or the dwarves first. Don't worry, they will be distracted by the orcs. After you kill the first leader, proceed to the orcs and then finish off the remaining leader.
+
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.
  
−
Attacking the elves first has the advantage that they have the richest lands, i.e., the most villages, so it means more gold for you by the end of the scenario. It has the side effect that you're more likely to face a live orc leader relative to if you had attacked the dwarves first, as the elves are pretty good at killing him.
+
If you have 500 gold, you should be pretty set for the next scenarios. You can survive with as little as 300.
  
−
Attacking the dwarves first has the advantage that it's probably easier, since the orc leader is more likely to die at the hands of the elves, plus the mountains make good ogre training grounds. It has the disadvantage that you have to spend time getting out of the dwarven mountains and then you will ultimately fight a lot of elves, though most of them will have come out of their forests by then.
+
=== 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.
  
−
In either case, you have a lot of ground to cover, so try to do without any non-quick shock troopers. Calvary, white mages, red mages and spearman track units (preferably quick) are all good.
+
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.
  
−
Strongly consider recruiting three or four young ogres as well. Use the young ogres on the mountains in the north (and west) to hunt down any stray dwarves (and elves) whilst levelling up to ogres.  
+
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.
  
−
(Future spoiler: This is your last chance to level non-leader units you will play two scenarios ahead in Captured. For instance, you may want to prepare a dragoon, a white mage, and a couple of adult ogres for that scenario.)
+
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.
  
−
=== Lake Vrug ===
+
Don't recall more than 1 extra healer. You'll need your gold later!
−
This is a very confusing hide and seek scenario that could take you several pointless restarts until you have finally discover the enemy leaders. To spare you the frustration, here is a spoiler...
 
  
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Spoiler: there are three enemy keeps, all north of the river. One is to the very northeast (go to the right into the mounts directly after crossing the bridge), one is between the path leading west and the river bank just before the path turns northwards, and one is in the very north at the end of the path. The orc leader resides in the first keep, the gryphon leader in the second, and the third is empty.
+
=== 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
  
−
Gryphons are vulnerable to the impact damage of heavy infantry and shock troopers, so recall two or three, preferably quick ones. Also recall another white mage to supplement Dacyn and recall as many ogres as possible, supplemented by young ogres. (Most of the enemy keeps are surrounded by high mountains which some of your troops cannot pass, but which the ogres handle quite easily.) You might also want to recruit a horseman to scout ahead.
+
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.  
  
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Apart from finding the keeps, the main challenge in this scenario is surviving the first onslaught of gryphons, which starts around turn 4 with quite a number of gryphons appearing from the northwest. On hard, the onslaught will be especially difficult to handle. When you see the first gryphon swoop out of the fog, ''panic!'' Generally where there is one gryphon, there are more gryphons. So, fall back away from the fog and form a defensive line that will eventually become a circle. Keep in mind that you can grab good terrain, i.e., the mountains, as gryphons are only too happy to attack you wherever you are, and your ogres and young ogres will hold up well there. Once you have wounded units, position your heavy units such as shock troopers and ogres very tighly around them, as the gryphons really have quite a large moving range and thus mercilessly slay unprotected injured units.
+
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.)
  
−
Just when you thought you had the gryphons wrapped up, here come the trolls across the bridge. They may be only a minor nuisance on medium or easy, but on hard it's a strain facing a large number of trolls with troops bloodied by the swarm of gryphons. Trolls are really no match for your shock troopers, however, who happily troll-crack away.
+
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.
  
−
Unfortunately, the shock troopers won't do you much good in the end phase. When taking the enemy keeps, use the ogres, who can move well on the high mountains, unlike most of your other units.
+
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).
  
−
=== Captured ===
+
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.
  
−
Gweddry starts out on autopilot, running up a tunnel to find some of his companions. These companions will consist of Dacyn, Oweac and, from your recall list, one Red Mage, Longbowman, Master Bowman, Arch Mage, Silver Mage, or Great Mage, plus one Swordsman, Pikeman, Javelineer, Royal Guard, or Halberdier. If you don't have any of those units, Gweddry, Dacyn and Oweac will be on their own and facing a tough challenge.
+
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.
  
−
Do not send this group back the way he came, or you will have to face some extremely mean trolls in the narrow tunnel. Instead, follow the tunnel to the north and west. You will face a few bats as you proceed. At the end of that tunnel, you will enter a throne room where you will find an enemy leader and his troops. Don't panic; the leader doesn't recruit and the troops are pretty sedate. Beware that a troll can ambush you out of the shroud, though.
+
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.
  
−
Meanwhile, when any of your units first enters the throne room, the resulting ruckus causes a group of your captured troops to plot an escape. Already wounded, they appear in a cavern called the "Torture Room" to the east. These troops will face a number of assassins as they leave the Torture Room moving west. Try to get through the prison "door" of the torture room quickly; otherwise, the enemy units have an easy time keeping your entire army locked away using just a single unit blocking the door. To get through the entrance quickly, you need to have your troops back away, allowing the guard to come in so that you can get multiple attacks on him to kill him. Any ogres you have will come in handy to rush out and prevent other assassins from blocking the entrance.
+
=== 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
  
−
[Thrash] From looking at the WML I believe the captured troops will consist of the 13 highest level troops from your recall list. You are well served by making sure you've got some Ogres, Mages of Light and others who do well in caves in that list.
+
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.
  
−
Victory occurs when Gweddry moves through the exit in the southwest corner. There is quite a comfortable early finish bonus, so you might want to move him there quickly, because - believe me when I say - you're going to need every gold piece for the next scenario. You should also quickly flag the numerous villages in a cavern called "The City", a cavern southwest of the Torture Room, where you will be confronted by a troll and other enemy units. If you have a silver mage, remember that the silver mage can teleport back and forth between the Throne Room and The City, as needed. With these things in mind, it should be possible to finish with over 500 gold on medium or 300 gold on hard.  
+
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.
  
−
There is a holy necklace on this level in the City, at coordinates x=22, y=38. Preferably grab it with a horseman or something similar. He will come in very hand in later scenarios (if he survives the next scenario, that is.)
+
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.
  
−
Note: Most of the orcs are level two and three units.
+
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 ===
 
=== Evacuation ===
−
This is one of those scenarios many deem "impossible", but it is by no means impossible, even on hard, given adequate gold. However, you must wrap your mind around an unpleasant truth: it may be necessary to accept heavy losses of high level troops. On the other hand, some players with strong rosters after going to Mal-Ravanal's Capital have beat this scenario on medium with minimal losses.
+
* '''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).
  
−
Note: You should have over 400 gold and a large number of level 2 and 3 units to recall to start this scenario. The scenario is doable with 300 gold even on hard, but will result in even higher casualties.
+
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.  
  
−
There are two options in this scenario: you can either defeat all enemy leaders or blow up the bridge in the south. In the former case, you could suffer quite some casualties in fighting the enemy. In the latter case, all your units that are not on the south side of the river by the time you blow up the bridge are killed by the explosion. Cruelly, this includes your nonrecalled units! Whichever option you take, watch out for the very tight time limit of 12 turns. And watch out for the level 2 trolls, as they can (and frequently will) instantly kill almost any of your units. Best fight them with two white mages or a white mage accompanied by some other unit.
+
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.  
  
−
Of the two options, killing all the enemy leaders is preferable if you can pull it off, so that you can keep your nonrecalled troops. First, recruit two to three keeps full of your typical experienced troops like iron maulers, white mages, and so on. If you went Mal-Ravanal's Capital and so have a lot of knights, recall them too. Ogres are also helpful, if you have some left, as they are strong and you will have no use for them in later scenarios (except maybe ''Weldyn Under Attack''). After that, for cannon fodder, recall a keep full of young ogres and calvary.
+
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!
  
−
Start to move your units south and attack the central enemy right away (i.e., do not wait until you have recruited all units). Split the second batch of recalls, sending half of them to the northeast and the other half to the southwest (otherwise you might not make it to all three leaders in time). Finally, send some young ogres and calvary to the northeast and southwest to distract the enemies there for two or three turns.
+
=== The Spoils of War ===
  
−
With all three groups of your units try to focus on attacking the enemy leaders as soon as possible, so you do not run out of time. With a bit of luck and probably some nasty casualties, you will have killed all three leaders around turns 10 to 12.
+
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.
  
−
The second option - blowing up the bridge - is quite a bit easier to pull off, especially on hard or with less than 400 gold. Your opening move will be to start running the engineer, Dacyn, and Owaec to the southwest. Then recall a keep of cannon fodder: young ogres, ogres, and calvary. Send them in all directions to distract the enemy. On subsequent turns, recall the troops that you want to try to save, putting slower ones at the head of the line. However, non-quick shock troopers and iron maulers are so slow that they should be sacrificed in rear guard action. Focus on running the engineer, using other units to block for him, creating a ZOC corridor. Keep in mind that almost everyone is expendable. Use combat sparingly, just where you need to open a hole or where you see an opportunity to level up and heal.
+
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.
  
−
If you finish the scenario with just the required units plus about three level 3 units, don't panic. You can indeed finish the rest of the scenarios, even on hard, starting with just a few level 3's. Note that the next scenario, ''The Drowned Plains'', is good for levelling raw recruits. However, if you have a lot of level 3's, it would certainly be easier to tackle another upcoming "impossible" scenario, namely ''Weldyn Under Attack'', so you may wish to replay ''Evacuation'' to get a better result.
+
Once all groups are freed, kill the southern enemy leader.
  
 
=== The Drowned Plains ===
 
=== The Drowned Plains ===
−
The Skeletal Dragon will be found in or near the castle (located on an island in the south). In getting there, you need to proceed slowly and carefully through the swamp. That is because there are lots of fairly high level undead hidden there, waiting to ambush your troops. Don't panic. They are easy to take one at a time, and you can offer the killing blow to troops that you are eager to promote. Think twice about trying to maneuver more units around the back of the one you're trying to kill, as there may be more ambushing undead there.
+
* '''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.
  
−
The dragon wanders around near the castle but only attacks units which he can kill instantly. If only strong units come near him, he tries to flee. Because of the fog the major challenge of this scenario is finding him and then getting him surrounded so he cannot just move away again. Once you have him trapped like this, slaying him should be easy using your stronger units (preferrably impact weapons because the dragon has a low resistance there).
+
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.
  
−
Note: On at least version 1.8.3, the Skeletal Dragon is buggy. It comes to you in the northeast early on and sits in your keep. [Thrash] I saw this behavior as well, the dragon just camped and didn't even attack, just sat there. I also found him far from the castle, not too far from where I started.
+
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.
  
−
=== Approaching Weldyn ===
+
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.
−
The objective is to "get Gweddry to Weldyn", which means that Gweddry has to reach one of the seven castle hexes. This is simply a matter of moving him there quickly. The end.
 
  
−
There is no challenge here, but with undead around you can pick up some XP with your fast moving arcane-enhanced troops (i.e., the ones that picked up holy amulets in earlier scenarios.) Try not to overrecruit or dilly-dally, though, as you need all the gold you can get for the next scenario, ''Weldyn Under Attack''.
+
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.
  
−
=== The Council ===
+
To the northwest is another skeletal horseman, who recruits more undead mounted units and Ghouls. Compared to Khrakrahs, a walk in the park.
  
−
Only plot in this. You see the inside of the castle.
+
=== Return to Wesnoth ===
 +
Story only.
  
 
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===
 
=== Weldyn Under Attack ===
−
*Objectives: Survive until end of turns
+
* '''Objective''': Survive until end of turns.
−
*Lose if: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, or Konrad II dies  
+
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec or Konrad II dies.
−
*Turns: 18/18/18 (easy/medium/hard)
+
* '''Turns''': 18.
−
*Starting units: Gweddry, Dacyn, Owaec, Konrad II, engineer
+
* '''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.
  
−
Brace yourself. This is the most difficult scenario of the campaign to this point. You already survived one scenario that many have found impossible, namely ''Evacuation'', so you can survive this one too. Rest assured, the scenario is winnable on hard with ~500 gold even without very many high level troops.
+
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.
  
−
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 three enemy leaders with equal amounts of gold at their disposal. The southwestern enemy leader is the only one that recruits nightgaunts, the southeastern enemy leader is the only one that recruits bats, and the northern leader is the only one that recruits Spectres. It stays nighttime (first and second watch) during most of the scenario, which is painful with the damage the undead will unleash.
+
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!
 
   
 
   
−
Your strategy should be to kill off one of the leaders and his troops, so that you can take over his defensive position. It's probably easiest to take the northern keep.
+
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.
−
 
 
−
The backbone of your army will be heavy infantry track units, mages, and mages of light. On the first turn, recall one of each, plus three calvary units to the rear, preferably quick. Send the calvary to backstab your allies, robbing them of their villages. They won't mind. Later, the calvary can run around to distract the enemy. Send your heavy infantry types, mages, and mages of light towards the target enemy stronghold. You should supplement them with any units with arcane attacks: arch mages, silver mages, white mages, and any units that picked up amulets in previous scenarios. Pad out your force with ogre / young ogre spam. As ogres are neutral, their attacks won't suffer in the near-permanent darkness, and they are useful on the hills to protect your flanks.
 
−
 
 
−
You probably will not be able to assassinate the leader before he is out of gold. When he dashes out to attack, check his gold. If he's broke, you might wish to ignore him for a turn or two while you kill off other units.
 
−
 
 
−
After you take over the stronghold, you may be able to recruit some more troops, if you saved some gold and/or did a good job capturing villages with your calvary. Note that saving gold is of no use for ''The Duel'', so spend it now. Next, you should start preparing for the assault waves of the other two leaders. The combined assault waves may be more than your forces can survive. Therefore, while your main force braces itself, you should send out some ogres, young ogres, calvary, and/or silver mages as distractions, mostly along the board edges. They can even get in a few kills.
 
  
−
For your main force, unless you have taken over the southwestern keep, you need to think about the invisible, infiltrating, backstabbing Nightgaunts that are now headed your way. Have your units form a block with their back to the board edge. Round the corners of the block towards the enemy (so that you don't have one unit face four attacks.) Keep your whole line solid and heavily wounded units buried deep inside.
+
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).
  
−
In addition to Nightgaunts, you have the threat of Banebows, which can do 52 ranged damage in one turn. However, they are fairly easily killed with proper strategy. Move a mage of light adjacent to blind the Banebow (i.e., remove its +25% bonus) and provide light for your lawful unit's attack (i.e., remove its -25% adjustment.) Move a shock trooper (or similar, preferably arcane enhanced) adjacent to the banebow and mage of light. Move a general up to lend leadership to the attacker. You may kill the Banebow in one attack. Otherwise, if the Banebow is quite wounded, you can use the mage of light to finish it off.
+
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.
  
−
If you lose when you try to make a stand, you could instead try splitting your forces in two, travelling along the board edges to attack the remaining two leaders. Some players have had success with this, killing the last leader by turn 14 or 15. Just remember that the objective is to survive until the end of turns, and Nightgaunts may be a problem. Killing all three leaders is a victory though and will earn you a early finish bonus of 54/turn, which is important if you go on to Weldyn Besieged.
+
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).
−
 
−
Hint: If you have one or two silver mages available, they are quite useful in this scenario. The map is rather large so have some fast-moving units like horsemen run through enemy territory and capture individual villages. Then use the teleport ability of your silver mage to perform hit-and-run (or rather: hit-and-teleport) attacks. Make sure you do not get him killed, though, by holding out too long after attacking.
 
  
−
At the end of the scenario, an enemy messenger appears telling you that you have only fought some delegates of the ancient lich Mal-Ravenal. It challenges you to have a duel with Mal-Ravenal instead of letting the armies meet for a final battle. If you accept the challenge, you get to scenario ''The Duel''. Otherwise you go to ''Weldyn Besieged''. [Thrash: In my opinion Weldyn Besieged is much tougher and you probably only want to go that route if you have a decent carry-over.]
+
=== Diverging Campaign Path ===
  
−
===Diverging Campaign Path===
 
 
==== The Duel ====
 
==== The Duel ====
−
* Objectives: Defeat Mal-Ravanal
+
* '''Objective''': Defeat Mal-Ravanal while Dacyn is nearby.
−
* Lose if: Gweddry dies  
+
* '''Lose if''': Gweddry or Dacyn dies, or Dacyn is not nearby when Mal-Ravanal is defeated.
−
* Turns: infinite
+
* '''Turns''': Unlimited.
−
* Starting units: Gweddry
+
* '''Starting units''': Gweddry, Dacyn.
−
* Other  
+
* '''Other''':
−
** Maximum six recruits/recalls for you.
+
** You can only recruit for the first turn.
−
** Starting gold is 200.
 
  
−
This is a somewhat strange scenario: you and Mal-Ravanal get to recall/recruit exactly six units each and then have to fight each other. Mal-Ravanal will recruit mostly level 3 units so this looks difficult. However, it is, in fact, quite managable.
+
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.
  
−
Recall mostly mages of light and other high-level arcane troops. Set them up in a line of 4 units backed up by 2 units at the edge of your starting stockade. "Cowardly" Gweddry should stand in the back up line so he does not accidentaly get killed.
+
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.
  
−
Then wait for Mal-Ravanal's troops to reach you, but try to be the first to attack (which may require a step or two backwards and then advancing again.) Try to finish them off quickly, as Mal-Ravanal plays unfair and every so often recruits another 3 units, albeit not so tough as the first batch of 6.
+
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.
−
 
 
−
Mal-Ravanal stays holed up in a little tunnel until your forces come near, when he will pop out and attack one of your units.
 
−
 
 
−
Spoiler: After killing Mal-Ravanal the campaign ends with a final scene of Gweddry and his companions being honoured by the king.
 
  
 
==== Weldyn Besieged ====
 
==== 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.
  
−
On versions prior to 1.5.6 the siege is laughably easy to break; just recall a keep full of your best troops and rush Mal-Ravanal in the south.
+
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.
−
 
 
−
As of 1.5.6 this battle should prove a more substantial challenge. Now the liches' names aren't revealed until they are attacked, and Mal-Ravanal is more likely to be revealed later in the scenario. Sending fast scouts to attack all the liches is not advisable since each lich receives a boost of gold for another round of recruitment after its name is revealed.
 
  
−
A workable strategy is to recall a group of cavalry with holy amulets and paladins to circle behind the undead horde and terminate the liches. You can draw the liches out of their keeps by positioning a sacrificial horseman within their attack radius. Once the lich is out in the open, your arcane damage cavalry should have no trouble finishing the lich off in a single turn.
+
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). If things turn grim, retreat to the castle and make your final stand.
+
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.
  
−
[Thrash: I had no success with the strategy of sending out a group of cavalry as I needed all hands on deck to defend the keep. What I found to be the key to winning was to make sure you get good hard first attacks on the approaching undead, starting with the ones from the south on turn 3 and then others on turn 4.]
 
  
 
[[Category:Campaigns]]
 
[[Category:Campaigns]]
 +
[[Category:Campaigns - Walkthroughs]]

Latest revision as of 06:56, 19 July 2024

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.

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This page was last edited on 19 July 2024, at 06:56.