LotI Walkthrough-Part1-Chapter05

Part I, Embracing the Darkness, Chapter 5, Hybrids of Steel

Generally

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Diplomacy

[WHU] Give the Woodland Cloak to Efraim. Drive fast. There's a lot of drops here, and Lethalia can easily take the battle alone to the northern enemies.

Escape

[WHU] Drive fast. Or kill all the mages for XP.

Pirates

[WHU] Send Lethalia north to pound her way into the castle, while Efraim goes northwest to do the same to the other castle. After a few turns, Efraim should have killed everything in defense, have Lethalia kill the northern leader for a gold bonus, or mop up some XP. About this time the third enemy should be starting to attack the forces you left behind. If you're going for XP, pick off his units a couple at a time with your spirits,

[Thrash] I spared the final leader.

Again

[WHU] Recruit some fodder to protect Akula, charge ahead with Efraim and Lethalia and take the first castle. Make some holes, recruit some undead to distract the humans, and charge ahead with Efraim and Lethalia until you crush the other human leader. The saurians should only last a few turns, at most, so you can ignore them.

We Walk in the Shadows

[WHU] Woodland Cloaks are handy here. Stay away from the lawful humans, or kill them if you find them alone, as you make your way to the building. Once there, you may want to disable all your weapons for retaliation using the Items menu (don't forget to turn them back on after this scenario), as you want to kill as few of the undead as possible (they will return to you soon). Be careful attacking Akula with melee, as she returns a lot of damage which isn't known by the damage calculation. Slow her and incinerate her if you can.

The Real Enemy

[WHU] Pay attention to the initial instructions. Leave the castle with both leaders, right click to cast a greater spell and cast soulgate. End your turn to allow the enemy to recruit, and then study their unit stats. Recruit/recall if you feel it necessary (probably not), and advance slowly, relying on your leaders to protect your army.

Into the Shadows

[WHU] Recall some units, spread out, and cast two more soulgates. The orcs can pretty much take care of things on their own if you want to hang back a little initially. There are going to be a lot of items dropped in the mountains, you may want one or two units that travel well there to move up behind the orcs to be ready to loot. Technically, you just need to enter the cave to win, but there's really no good reason to let that enemy leader live.

[WHU] Before you finish this scenario, investigate the right click menu Configure Autorecall. Starting with the next scenario, a number of units will be recalled automatically, for free. You can choose which ones, up to a limit which can be expanded for gold.

The Dungeon

[WHU] For the rest of this chapter, you will explore a dungeon with many rooms. You are given a map which shows most, but not all, of the rooms (see right click menu at any time). As you explore, you will discover the entrances to other rooms. Entering a new room heals and cures all of your units, and recalls the units on your autorecall list. Before changing rooms, if you have remaining greater spells, make sure to cast soulgate and possibly update your autorecall list. When you enter a new room, leave a unit or three near the entrance in case you need to make a quick retreat, but don't forget about them as enemies will be constantly spawning. In most cases, any bosses you kill will remain dead when you return, so you will likely find yourself entering a room with the intent of only taking out one objective, then retreating to heal and return, often multiple times.

[WHU] As you make your way through the dungeon, you will collect a lot of items and XP, vastly strengthening your army. You can focus on a dozen or so units and advance them until they are crazy powerful, or spread the XP around. Many rooms contain something you can destroy to weaken Akula, your ultimate objective, and/or her forces. You can spend as much time exploring as you like, returning to fight the same enemies repeatedly (as long as you don't kill their boss), racking up tons of XP and items. When you are ready, Akula awaits in the center. Supposedly, if you go straight for her, it's a nasty fight. However, if you explore and conquer each room in the dungeon first the final fight is pretty much a joke. If you need allied help, enter from the east. This is the end of Part I, none of your units, items, or upgrades will carry over to Part II.

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