SonOfThe BlackEye

The End Of Peace

• Objectives: Defeat Albert, the human lieutenant
• Lose if: Kapou'e dies or time runs out
• Turns: 34/30/26 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Kapou'e

It looks tempting to recruit lots of Wolf Riders to match the humans' cavalry mobility, but don't try -- they're not quite a match for cavalry and tend to get cut to pieces in detail. Two Wolf Riders for village stealing is enough, recruit mostly Orcish Grunts and Orcish Archers instead. Keep close order, pot the cavalry with Archers, and bodyguard the Archers with the Grunts. Kapou'e can do a second round of recruiting at one of the neutral keeps closer to the battle.

The Human Army

• Objectives: Resist until your people can leave, then get Kapou'e to the signpost
• Lose if: Kapou'e dies or time runs out
• Turns: 18/18/18 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Kapou'e

Avoid this scenario; it is basically impossible to beat. You'll be given the option at the end of the first scenario.

Towards Mountains of Haag

• Objectives: Move Kapou'e to the signpost and, optionally, kill the dwarf leader
• Lose if: Kapou'e or Gruu dies or time runs out
• Turns: 27/24/20 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Kapou'e and one other unit

Keep Kapou'e and your troops moving and try to brush the dwarves off your flank as you pass, because if they get to mass on you and fight a static battle they will chop you to dogmeat. Recruit at most for two rounds and run for the signpost at least until the trolls show up. Then, if the odds are with you, you can linger a bit and harvest some EP. Again, your Archers are your best offensive tool (since the dwarves have no missile attack) but you need to use Grunts and Wolf Riders keep the dwarves off them. Even if you kill the dwarves you still have to move Kapou'e to the signpost.

If you fight the dwarves, try and get them onto non-hill/mountain terrain.

[edit by imperative] I managed to fight off the dwarves fairly easily using this strategy:

1. Run 2-3 Wolf Riders around to nab ALL of the villages outside of the mountain border.
2. Send Grunts to defend Archers and begin to weaken the dwarves.
3. Archers kill the dwarves for the most part.
4. Try to use a Crossbowman (if you have one) to kill a lot of the dwarves.
5. Send whatever units can get there in time to the edge of the mountains near the signpost and keep the 1-2 dwarves away. (I like to use 1-2 Grunts for this.)
6. Send a large group of Archers with Grunts and Kapou'e directly to the king. He'll step off of the keep, send Kapou'e to this spot and recruit your soldiers at that base, and crush the remaining dwarves.

The Siege of Barag Gor

• Objectives: Defeat the enemy leaders
• Lose if: Kapou'e, Gruu or any of the shamen dies or time runs out
• Turns: 30/28/26 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Kapou'e, Gruu and a scout
• Other: try and get to the Assassin cage near Blue's castle. You get a loyal Assassin and the ability to train MORE Assassins.

The key to winning this one is that, even though you get a nice allied troop surge in Barag Gor at the beginning of turn 2, you shouldn't waste your own troops in a futile effort to hold the city. Instead, run the trapped shamen out as soon as possible; a gap is likely to open up to the SE around turn 3. Take your troops south to knock out the elves there, then west, then north.

I did defend the city successfully, by recruiting lots of trolls. I had a couple of wolves go get villages and to distract the southern and northeast troops from attacking the city en masse. When I had got enough troops leveled up, I sent a force south first, to take out the southern leader and then go west for the southwestern leader. Then, I sent out a separate forces to the northeastern leader and northern leader. Pay attention to income. The more you get, the more trolls you can recruit. (vlade)

Towards Harbor of Tirigaz

The northeastern enemy can be blocked with a couple of veteran units at the river fort; do that while you take villages on the near side of the river with your shamans and take a recruiting round or two of troops south to deal with the southwestern enemy. Ignore the holy water as any unit that reaches it will just drink it.

[stupidjaguar] Remember to recruit the Archer lines and the Troll lines. Anything else is far less useful. The level 3 archers and trolls can take out an undead unit every turn with little damage to themselves.

Black Flag

If you run Grüü and Kapou'e straight south to the central keep (not stopping to grab villages unless you can end a longest possible move south on one) you'll get to recruit troops in time to meet the first pirates on the beach. This will be good as fighting from the water hinders them. Punch out Harmon's (southern) keep first, then roll north. (If you can, take out the galleons by attacking them directly before they can offload their troops. Goblin Knights or Direwolf Riders are good for this. This way you can effectively take out four units for the price of one.)

The Desert of Death

Pick troops with lots of mobility because the desert is hard to move in. Use your shamans' ranged attacks against the giant scorpions. Head southeast towards the near edge of the big lake; the enemy you'll need to defeat is there. His troops aren't very effective but beware of letting isolated units get swarmed.

Saving Inarix

The main thing to know here is that the elves have a 100-per-turn income; you can contain them long enough to get Inarix to the river but you can't beat them. Block the elves with a strong force (they recruit L1s, so this is a leveling-up opportunity), bloody the dwarves with a slightly weaker one, and run Inarix up the middle.

Some units will attack your saurians as they move up the map. It will make the next level a lot easier if you can level one of the Augurs to a Soothsayer (+8 heal). Make this a priority. Killing the elven leader will help.

Clash of Armies

You'll only have +4 healing from your saurians (unless you have already leveled an Augur), so this is a test of how efficiently you can cycle units from the fortifications back to villages without losing them. Your left flank is more exposed than your right as there will be gryphons and the occasional merman (they become rare after the first surge). Hold the river bastion or bridge if possible; if they get to the shore hey'll be able to widen the front and make better use of their numbers. Orcish Slurbows will be really useful. Grüü will be effective against the Gryphons, so try and keep him in the hills. Lure the mermen onto land and then strike at them with leveled up trolls and Inarix.

The assault across the river is weak and you should easily contain it. There are only 3 hexes where the enemy can attack you from so you can bottle their massive force up quite easily. If a weak (level 1) unit gets in one of these hexes, don't kill it. They will clog the way. Would you rather have an Archer attack you or a Red Mage? Use this area to sneak kills for your lower level units (especially to get a Soothsayer) but in general just have Orcish Warlords, Slurbows and Troll Warriors hold the bridgehead.

The stiffer challenge comes from the mermen and Gryphons. Keep a Slurbow on the bridge to intercept any Gryphons. As for the mermen, those castle hexes on the water are just trying to sucker you in. If you go there you will be fighting the mermen when they are in water. Bad idea. Go a little inland. You'll be closer to the villages and the mermen will be on land and easier to hit. Again, do most of the damage with your strong units and sneak kills with lower level ones. This is the best place for Kapou'e to take advantage of his leadership.

A Dwarvish Stand

Recruit Wolf Riders and other types with lots of mobility, because just mushing through the snow to get to the enemy units is work. Let your allies get in front of you and screen your troops. Let them fight the entrenched units and rush out onto poor defensive ground. Your saurians will be almost useless here due to low mobility. It may be worthwhile to have a Soothsayer or two.

Back Home

This is a big, messy brawl. Your allies will show up late but in large numbers. Concentrate on the human and elvish keeps nearest you, allies (including Gruu, who you'll play when he arrives) should do an effective job of squashing the others.

Civil War

It's difficult to get this one finished in time unless you divide your forces and get maximum use from the roads. Send two groups at the northwestern and southeastern keeps, then converge on the southwestern one.

The Coward

Lots of scenery -- and lots of villages -- in this one. Build two or three wolf riders just to run around grabbing villages, it will pay off. The AI will tend to move his units north to grab the coastal villages; encourage this by sending a handful of veterans in that direction to draw more troops north even as you run your main body down the road towards the city gate. [Make sure you take out the two leaders close to your starting position on the first turn or you will be fighting a losing battle with fourteen units right on top of your four units and no place to recruit from.]

Human Attack

Let your ally-generals soak up the casualties; use them to screen your flanks and your movements. A static defense on the city wall will work, or you can recruit a large army early on and punch down the middle; that has the advantage that you may be able to take out Earl Lanbec'h before a lot of his reinforcements arrive (they show up at the south-center edge of the board every morning).

Feel free to spend a lot of money. The early finish bonus is massive.

Northern Alliance

Shan Taum is far weaker than Lanbec'h. The benefit of taking him out quickly is that your ally will then concentrate his forces on Lanbec'h; if both enemies are present, Howgarth's forces oscillate a little in between the two.

You should start this level with a lot of gold. Keep recruiting every turn until you run out. With the Great Horde low upkeep this will take a while. Keep doing it. Since you'll largely be level 1 units against their level 2 and 3 units, Orcish Assassins level the playing field nicely with poisoning. The Assassins also have high defense and tend to draw enemy attacks.

Hold the wall until you reach a certain (im)balance and then push south. Lanbec'h gets reinforcements in the afternoon but they are nothing like as formidable as the previous scenario. All you have to do is kill Lanbec'h, not all the enemy units. So, if you get a chance, pick him off.

If you are willing to put up with the tedium of recruiting tons of units, your victory should be inevitable.