LegendofWesmere

Legend of Wesmere

General Note: Throughout this campaign, if your elves need to make a stand and you have a choice of options, choose the one that will put most of them in the woods. Not only will this give you the best chance of survival, it will ensure that the AI playing your allies will do useful things. This matters a lot, because many of the scenarios in this campaign involve allies you cannot control whose death results in your defeat.

Strategical Note: This is a long campaign where you play elves. So take a look at the top level units: There are two units capable of flight! One of them is a curing healer +8, the other one is level 4. Both of them can do magic, and both of them can slow their enemies! If you can team up two shydes and two sylves, you get a magically hard hitting, regenerating, slowing air force that can ZoC-lock an enemy. As if that wasn't enough, late in the campaign you'll lose access to most of your veteran troops, but not your sylves and shydes. So it really pays to level shamans, level shamans and level shamans.

Loyal troops are even more valuable in this campaign than in most others, partially because they get three traits, but mainly because you'll get to keep them when your other troops are unavailable. With that in mind, you should strongly consider leveling one (or both!) of your loyal fighters into a grand marshal. His leadership skills will prove invaluable when you are stuck with a level 1 army.

The Uprooting

Like the first scenario in Heir to the Throne, this scenario begins with the hero in a forest with enemies preparing to close in on all sides. You can't beat the enemy leaders (you have too little gold and only first level units) and you're not expected to try. Recruit just enough units to screen Kalenz and Landar (about a keep or a keep and a half's worth) and run everybody to the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Try to send at least one rider to grab villages, including one to the north of your ally's keep—if the orcs attack him before the scenario ends, you will inherit the ally's units (and you'll keep them for future recall if you run them south to join the rest of your army).

Hostile Mountains

The most important thing to do is get the dwarves to fight the trolls. Send a disposable unit or two to the middle island. Put a unit in the water where a troll will go to the east bank in order to attack. The unit won't live but you'll get a bunch of allies.

Because your units will be mostly first level, you need as many of them as you can afford to survive this scenario. Archers will be the most useful to recall/recruit because the trolls do not have a ranged attack. Though archers are needed to deal enough damage to the trolls it is a good idea to recall/recruit a number of shamans as well. On the one hand they can level quite easily fighting the high-level trolls, and on the other hand they make your enemies a lot less dangerous through their slowing attack.

Do not, under any circumstances, cross the river—if you do, Olurf will attack you, and the trolls will cut both you and the dwarves to pieces. (You can have units stand in the river if necessary to reach a particular unit, but since your enemies are more powerful than your units avoid doing so if you are likely to be counterattacked.) Instead, send a rider or two out to grab the villages in the far northern reaches of the board while you move your troops onto the wooded island in the middle of the river, directly south of your keep. From here, you can help the dwarves whittle down the trolls while you slowly wend your way southwest toward the troll keep. The scenario will end if you succeed in killing the troll leader. Note: Olurf's death counts as a defeat.

Ka'lian Under Attack

Take careful note of this map; you'll be fighting on it again later.

For the first seven turns you are controlling the defenders of the Ka'lian. See all those Orcish Assassins in the water? You probably don't want to have all your units poisoned to death. Recruit Shamans to sit behind the defenders. They won't be able to cure, but they will prevent the loss of 8 HP per turn. If an Elvish Archer is poisoned, go ahead and use its ranged attack on an Assassin, otherwise try to manage your poisoned units somewhat prudently. Don't just hit Ctrl-R to recruit; you have a massive keep so put your new units in the right place. Don't let the orcs in good defense terrain and you should be fine. When turn 7 is done Kalenz arrives and you lose control of these defenders. If you can, move some units as far west as you can (if the attack has wound down). This seems to help the AI attack the westernmost orc leader, which is useful.

When you take over with Kalenz make your stand in the woods just to the southwest of your keep and to the immediate north of the Ka'lian. Use Elvish Shamans to slow powerful units, and recruit lots of archers. Send some riders to grab villages— it should be relatively low-risk and the gold will be useful for the next scenario (note that you can't cross the river on the far eastern edge of the map). If you manage your troops correctly, you can level a number of them which is a very good idea to get through the next few scenarios.

The Elvish Treasury

Send your army en masse to the keep in the northwest first; that's where the Shyde and the gold are. Then turn east to take out the other saurian. When fighting the saurians, there are three things to remember: 1) Don't send out isolated units, because they'll be swarmed and killed; 2) Try not to position any units where a saurian can attack them from swampy ground; and 3) watch the day/night cycle (it doesn't affect your elves, but the saurians are significantly weaker by day and you can turn that fact to great advantage). Try and kill the Augurs with your fighter line and if possible slow the Skirmishers. The Skirmishers have a lot of movement points; make sure that wounded units are safe.

The Saurian Treasury

This scenario is much trickier than the last one because here you have to fight the saurians on terrain that's hostile to your elves (desert and swamp). Do NOT send a lone unit north to try to grab the treasury; it will just get swarmed and killed. Instead, send your troops west en masse to take out the leader in the blue keep. If you need to leave Kalenz behind to recruit, make sure he has at least a couple of units to help screen/defend him. Once you've killed the blue saurian leader, move north, en masse, to take the treasury and dispose of the other saurian leader. Note: You should have a boatload of gold after you win this scenario.

Acquaintance in Need

This is another leveling opportunity for your shamans, as there is another troll leader to kill. Also you need to make sure that you neither overrecruit nor underrecruit. With too few units, you will take too long to finish your enemies (as always), while too many units won't help you in the fight, and you will need the money!

Start with the green enemy, who's the closest one to you—the dwarves, which are your allies for this scenario, should provide substantial help in doing so. While you finish off the first orc, you should start sending a fair amount of relatively unexperienced archers/shamans west to take on the troll. Then move north over the mountains in a broad line to take out the orcs. A broad front line will help you to quickly overrun the orcs and allow you to finish in good time. Of course, you need sufficient numbers to do this without overstretching yourself.

Elves' Last Stand

[NOTE: This scenario gives you the option of choosing to give orders to the AI that controls your allies. Because of bug issues, I ended up playing the scenario through without using this option. The advice that follows is for playing the scenario with the AI making automatic choices.--cathyr19355]

This is the same map as in Kal'ian Under Attack, but with many more enemies. Don't do the obvious thing here—i.e., attacking the trolls first, because they're the nearest enemy—that will just get Galtrid, your ally holding the Kal'ian, killed, causing defeat. Instead, make your stand in the woods just north of the Kal'ian, taking care to assume a position that will let you defend both against the trolls and against the brown and orange orc troops that will be coming west from the other side of the river. (If you have enough troops, this time it will be useful to move some of them to the river bank to attack the orcs while they're still in the water.) If you're careful, you can use the heavy fighting to level units. As you kill off the trolls and the brown and orange orcs, move the main body of your army south through the Kal'ian to the turquoise keep, then east and north again to kill the remaining enemies. Meanwhile, recruit/recall a bunch of riders and other fast-moving units, send them directly south of your keep to grab the villages on the western side of the board; if they make it far enough south, you can aim them at the turquoise orc's keep to take some of the pressure off the Kal'ian. Even though you have a lot of gold and can recruit a lot of units, your enemies are numerous, and Olurf and his dwarves won't show up until the third day, so don't get sloppy about formation and protecting the wounded.

Note for directing the AI: Your south-east Ally is too weak to survive unaided where he is. So it is a good idea to wait until he has recruited as much as he can before telling him to move his leader to Kal'ian. I tried to get both my allies to swarm the sourthern orc, they should be able to defeat him, but unfortunately the AI does not really listen to this kind of order (bug?), so once I had the trolls under control I send a select few units south through Kal'ian to help mop up the remaining orcs there. This should leave you enogh time to concentrate on the nothern battle. (At the moment, you will have to debug the scenario before playing it, since Galtrid does not recruit at all. Hopefully it won't take long until a debuged version is shipped with the game.)

Council of Hard Choices

Story only.

Bounty Hunters

More saurians. However, this time, it's not your job to wipe them out (which is fortunate, because their keeps are located in high mountains where your elves are very slow). Your only task is to get Kalenz over to the other side of the river. The river is fordable throughout most of its length, but infested with enemy creatures. Fortunately, the creatures will attack the saurians too, and you can turn that fact to your advantage. Recruit a castle or two (at most) of primarily riders and fighters (dwarves aren't very useful on this terrain), run north as fast as you can, aiming for the island in the center of the river—used carefully, that will allow you to get Kalenz over the water without having to park him in the river for any longer than a turn.

[CMaster]: I disagree. With four healers, a bunch of sorceror line elves and the dwarves who showed up at the Ka'lian, it is perfectly possible to defeat both enemy leaders simultaneously. Run Kalenz north once you got enough troops recalled, he can cross the river unaided (at least on medium difficulty). Just make sure he reaches the forrest on the western isle before the sea monsters appear.

Cliffs of Thoria

There are three tricky elements about this one. First, you have to climb to your destination (the signpost at the top northeast corner of the map) over high mountains, so the going will be very slow for your elves; watch the turn clock carefully. Second, the “fog of war” applies so you won't know much about your enemies until you actually bump into them. Third, some of your enemies are level 4 Yetis. Split your forces, sending one group west. The other group, with Kalenz, goes directly north, deals with the nearest enemy, and continues to the signpost. This group should be large enough that you can peel off 4-6 units once you get most of the way north to take out the enemy in the far northwestern keep. Note: dwarves do well in the mountains, but don't recruit a lot of ulfserkers, not even the second-level ones—they tend to take out the unit they attack but then are very vulnerable to attacks by other units.

Battle of the Book

Your enemies here are drakes and trolls. This is in your favor because the scenario starts at night, when drakes are weakest. Be careful about using archers, since some of the drakes breathe fire and do more damage that way than your units can with their arrows. A good mix of impact and ranged fighters is essential. Split your forces. Send half of your troops east along the road first to Crelanu's keep (if you don't, he may get killed before you can kill off the drakes) to save him and kill the troll leader (whose keep is close by). Take the remaining troops west to kill the drake leader.

Revelations

Story only.

Ancient Alliance

Your human ally is sufficiently strong that he can deal with the enemies on the south side of the river while you move north with your troops to take out the northwestern enemy first. Use a number of scouts to take the villages of your human ally. They don't need to defend themselves if they stay behind the lines of your ally. The gold is just so much more usefull in your hands...

While you fight the northern enemies, take your stands in such a fashion that the enemy must attack you from the water whenever possible. After you've killed the green (northwestern) leader, move directly east to the northeastern keep to take out that leader. Alternatively, you can recall/recruit sufficient numbers to take both of the northern enemies at once. At this point, be prepared to detach some units south to come to your ally's aid. When the northeast leader is gone, move the rest of your army south to help your ally mop up stray units and kill the remaining leaders.

The Treaty

Story only.

The Chief Must Die

You get no keep, and no chance to recruit, in this one. The only units you have are Kalenz and Landar, and their only task is to assassinate the Orc Sovereign and reach the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Your units will have special attributes for this scenario only that will make this fairly easy, particularly if you have managed to get Kalenz and Landar to level 3. Take the most direct route to the Orc (he's in the large keep in the center of the map), fight only the units that attack you, and get out as quickly as you can. If you can grab a few villages on the way in or out, all the better.

Breaking the Siege

Stick to recruiting units with lots of mobility, since the map is large and mostly snow-covered, hampering most of your unit types (don't even bother to recruit dwarves—they won't get to the scene of the action in time to strike any blows). It is essential that you reach your ally quickly. Otherwise he might be dead before you even see him. Despite the fact that fog of war is turned on for this scenario, it's pretty simple to figure out from the geography which keep belongs to your ally. Send part of your forces straight north to deal with the orcs in the north central keep, while sending the rest of your army directly west, then north.

Hour of Glory

Story only.

Costly Revenge

This is the same map as The Saurian Treasury, but with most of the terrain snow-covered. Since you're fighting the saurians again, most of the advice from that scenario still applies. Mobility is not a great issue, even though one of the enemy keeps is near the top northeastern corner of the map, because by the time you can dispose of your southern enemy he will have already sent most of his troops south after you. Numbers are an issue, however. So, whatever you do, do not underrecruit!

Council Ruling

Story only.

Elvish Assassins

This is another running game, on the same map as the first scenario; since Landar has betrayed Kalenz, most elves' hands have turned against our hero. The Landar and Olurf units gone, and so is most of your recall list. Recruit enough units to screen Kalenz and Cleodil and run for the signpost at the southwestern corner of the map. Because most of the units ranged against you will be second level or higher, this will take a bit of ingenuity unless you can recruit a lot of units for guard duty.

Northern Battle

This is the same map as Breaking the Siege, but since it's not winter, most of the board is grassland and woods, and much easier for your elves to fight on. Landar, now one of your enemies, will be in the far southwest, while another enemy elf has a keep in the far southeast. However, because of Landar's betrayal and the loss of most of your veterans, you will be working mostly with first level units. Consequently, don't try to take on either enemy on the naked grasslands where their keeps lie; recruit as much as you can, then head for your ally's keep in the north central region of the board, taking as many villages during the process as possible. If necessary, leave a few units at the river bank to slow the brown elf units that will pursue you; there is a village on a peninsula in the river near your keep that may be useful in this regard. If you need to, make a stand in and about your ally's keep, though depending upon how well you delay the brown enemy you may be able to pick off your enemy a few at a time in the forest long enough to survive until the end of the scenario.

If you have been careful to build an air force (I had four shydes and two sylphs), it is absolutely unnecessary to run for it. Just recall/recruit a fair amount of support troops for your air force and fight in the forest since the woods will help only your troops. Your magic guarantees that. It is easy to defeat your enemies entirely that way.

Alternative Strategy:

The AI leader southeast of your starting keep will make a severe tactical blunder, capturing the only village in range on turn 1, leaving him utterly exposed with enemies nearby. With the select group of loyal troops (and any slyphs available for recall) and proper positioning on turn 1, it is trivial to eliminate the enemy leader on turn 2. With a scout or two sent due south to draw the enemy troops out of their encampment (and away from your valuable troops), you can attack decisively if you have enough troops, or hold the enemy's encampment and let his troops wander north or attack your defensive position. This battle's over as soon as one of your units moves close to Landar's encampment, so let him march his troops north to attack your ally. Recruit a squad of scouts and send them west, timing it so that they reach Landar's keep the turn after he moves his troops out of range. Reach Landar's keep and you'll have plenty of gold to finish the game.

End of War

Recall any remaining veteran troops, then recruit an army of level 1 elves. Send out riders to grab villages early, and form up your line of battle at the edge of the forest to maximize the difference in defense (70% vs. 40%, while trying to hold the shore is only 40% vs. 20%). The forest defense bonus also means that your level 1 troops stand a good chace of surviving at least one round of two level 2 attacks (which they are unlikely to survive on open ground). If any enemy elves make it into the forest the best approach is to use magic attacks to smoke them out (a slyph works wonders). Once Landar's army has been dealt with, sweep your troops down to the enemy keep to deliver the coup de grace.

Epilogue

Story only.