LotI Walkthrough-Part1-Chapter03

Part I, Embracing the Darkness, Chapter 3, Shadows of the Night

Generally

[WHU] Recruiting and recalling work differently than normal in this chapter. Be sure to read and understand the introductory material at the beginning of the first scenario. Villages will often provide no income, check the status table (Alt-s, then Scenario Settings) at the start of each scenario.

Thirst for Adventures

[WHU] Recruits are not really necessary here, and if Efraim and Lethalia are fast, they'll just slow you down. If you do recruit, keep them back and have Lethalia and Efraim protect them from the first batch of wolves and mists. The town "to the east" is actually to southeast, the first time the road forks follow the southeast branch with your fastest leader. North of the town is a swamp, kill the lich. You will be given the opportunity to go on an optional scenario, why not?

Bandits (Optional Scenario)

[WHU] Recruit a couple elves, give/craft them some gear, and try to get them some experience. Use heroes to block enemies to protect your new elves, and Argan to provide leadership.

Journey South

[WHU] A long scenario, without much opportunity to use low level units. About ten tiles southeast of the mouth of the path through the mountains is a small orc camp. You may want to send a few heroes over the mountains to take it out. I've always chosen to help the woman which gives a nice reward, but I don't know what the other options do. After you enter the cave, there is a lake full of souls to eat. On the west side of the lake is a chest of gold. One leader can easily clear the path on land of the enemy undead.

[WHU] Following the path south you find a cavern. There are trolls to the west, which provide what IMO is one of the toughest fights in LotI unless you can get to the opening where you fight two on one in your favor. It's no place for your junior units, they can safely remain heading south. Fighting the trolls is not strictly necessary if you just keep moving south. If you choose to go west, look for the entrance to a secret passage to the south, there's a piece of loot in there that is weakly protected.

[WHU] Shortly after exiting the cave there is a gap in the mountains to the west which leads to a path to a secret scenario. It is quite difficult, but doable and gives you access to some dwarves, which is nice, especially if you're building up a collection of axes. If you chose not to fight the trolls and only sent a unit or two through the secret passage, this might be their only hope of survival (unless you sent Lethalia alone, who can fly to a tile inaccessible to the trolls). The alternative is just to cruise easily down to the southern border. Either way you should finish at least 100 turns early -- with no early finish bonus.

Mining (Optional Scenario)

[WHU] Time to recall or possibly recruit some units. The turn limit is very tight here if you don't have overwhelming force. Your enemies, aside from the four liches, are weak, but you have a lot of work to do and a lot of map to cover so you want plenty of troops to clear the way for your heroes. In the northeast you'll be facing goblins, Lethalia and some elf markmen should have no trouble there. The rest will be undead, so arcane and impact attacks are key. While you are in a cave, most of the paths are covered with roads. This is a good scenario to get some XP for lower level units. Spread your forces so that you are advancing along all paths at once, and try to make sure your heroes move as much as possible each turn, while still blocking enemy units from teaming up on your low level units.

Siege

[WHU] Gold, or XP? A fast leader can race down and get behind the orc leader, step into his castle, and win around turn 4, picking up a nice early finish bonus, but leaving a lot of XP on the table. On the other hand, your allies are actually useful, so you could join them in a straight up assault and grab a lot of XP. Your allies have healers you can take advantage of by carefully positioning your units.

[WHU] I like a hybrid approach, where I send a few heroes to stand in the orc castle so he can't recruit very fast and then pick them off a few at a time. You don't get much gold that way, but it's safe, especially if you want to distribute XP to junior units, at least until your ally joins you in the castle. I don't think this is a very wise approach, but it's fun, especially if you mix in some explosive slow attacks to really frustrate the orcs.

Entering the Desert

[WHU] Recruit a few mages, protect them, and take advantage of Argan's leadership and Stormrider's burn foes to help the mages advance. Send a couple elves to scout the forest for villages. Send your army south, following the road. Efraim and Lethalia are relatively safe to explore the desert, but watch out for the occasional enemy that petrifies. There are a lot of enemies with poison, so lead with your undead.

[WHU] In the southeast corner is a pit that will spawn ghostly units in increasing number. The idea here is to use those ghosts as target practice for your mages. I just don't find that practical, it's very difficult to protect them. I go for the big early finish bonus. Whichever you choose, Lethalia (or Efraim if you have advanced his movement AMLAs to at least the levitate upgrade) should be making constant movement toward the pit, as the ghosts will surround your leader on every turn.

The Pit

[WHU] Send a quick dwarf or other unit that moves well in caves along the north border to pick up an item in the northeast corner. Send your heroes southeast to find the glyph where the ghosts spawn and step on it to stop them. You can leave your low level and/or slow units behind, they won't be much use against the units you'll be up against. If you do decide to bring them, use Efraim and Lethalia together to disable the glyph, keeping ghosts in front of you for the most part, while Delly, Argan, and Stormrider protect the rest of the army from any ghosts that get by.

[WHU]

Nightmare

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