DescentIntoDarkness

Campaign-level notes

Descent into Darkness had a significant revision in version 1.14.7. This page is currently being updated to reflect these changes.

Recruitment Strategy

Malin Keshar and Spectral Servant both have unique advancement paths in this campaign. When one of these units reaches its xp cap, you will be offered a choice of several possible "AMLA" upgrades, such as +1 melee damage, +1 ranged damage, or various special abilities, after which your xp will return to zero with a higher cap. Sometimes these AMLA advancements will be accompanied with a level increase and a significant boost in overall stats, and sometimes not. They will generally not be accompanied by healing to full hp. The exact xp requirements differ based on difficulty level and the order in which you select the upgrades. They can continue to accumulate AMLA upgrades after reaching lvl 3. In total, these units will end up requiring much more xp to reach level 3 than an ordinary dark adept or ghost would, but they will also end up being far more powerful due to all the cumulative upgrades they get along the way. For example, in one playthrough on Hard difficulty Malin required a total of 105 xp to reach lvl 2, and another 313 xp to reach lvl 3. Spectral Servant took 50 xp to reach lvl 2 and another 264 to reach lvl 3. There will be a scenario toward the end of the campaign where Malin will need to fight a large number of enemies solo and then with very few units to help him, so getting these two units, especially Malin, as powerful as possible is a good investment that you will need to start working on immediately. The Vitalize upgrade to Malin's melee weapon will also be very useful to help him survive better when fighting solo.

You'll be introduced to Walking Corpses very early on, and some tend to forget about them in favor of snazzy and more capable units - but never discount how their numbers can add up later on with the plague ability, especially when you want to protect those high-level specialist units of yours. They can level up to Soulless, but it is almost always more cost effective to just recruit fresh Walking Corpses in the next scenario rather than recalling a Soulless.

Ghosts will be a useful part of your force - mostly when leveled up. Prefer them for recruitment even if initially they require some help from other units, and allocate enough experience to make them into Wraiths or Shadows. Both these units are useful in general when playing undead, but in this particularly campaign it is extremely beneficial to have at least 4 Shadows/Nightgaunts available for recall as soon as you can manage it.

Bats are less useful in this campaign as in some other cases, as your Ghost-based units are just as mobile and not much slower; and sometimes invisible to boot.

Dark Adepts are not available in this campaign, so your only option for ranged damage will be skeleton archers, Darken Volk, and Malin himself.

Darken Volk will accompany you in many of your scenarios. He starts at level 2, and getting him up to level 3 will be very helpful, given how limited your other options for ranged damage are.

Skeletons will be the backbone of your army. You will face some very scary orcish crossbowmen and human mages who can quickly wipe out your undead units with fire/arcane attacks, and skeletons and their advancements will be your best tools for taking them out asap to minimize the damage they can cause. Skeletons' high blade resistance also makes them very effective for going toe to toe with even lvl 3 orcish warlords.

Saving Parthyn

• Objective: Defend the fort for two nights
• (Alternative Objective: Kill the orcish leader)
• Lose if: Deaths of Malin, Dela, or Drogan, OR Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn
• Turns: 13
• Starting units: Malin Keshar, two Spearmen and a Bowman
• New Recruitment options: Walking Corpse (8 Gold).

Your starting level is a small section of the Abez, with a ford between the South and Northern side. Your starting fort is just to its south, the L2 Orc Warrior enemy leader's - slightly farther away to its north. To your west, Drogan occupies another fort.

The orc leader has more initial gold than you, and he will recruit some lvl 2 Crossbowmen, while you have only your 3 loyal lvl 1 units and lvl 0 Walking Corpses. So, you will have to play to your strengths, which are terrain, numbers, and the plague ability.

Make sure that your units occupy all of the favorable terrain on your side of the river and force the orcs to fight you from the water whenever possible. Rotate your walking corpses to the front during the night and save your loyal lawful units for daytime to maximize their damage output. Actually killing the enemy leader is extremely difficult on the highest difficulty, so you can play very defensively and let Drogan's reinforcements keep rushing past you to fight the orcs in the water. Since your units all have zero upkeep, you can still get a decent carryover by stealing all of your allies' villages in the first few turns and only recruiting ~8-10 Walking Corpses, which should be all you need if you play defensively and maximize your plague ability.

None of your loyal units will follow you to the next scenario, and even if you do level up a Walking Corpse, it will max out as a lvl 1 Soulless and will not be worth recalling later, so you should focus on getting Malin as many kills as possible. It will still be useful to kill a couple enemies with Walking Corpses in order to generate reinforcements with their Plague ability. Focus your Walking Corpses' attacks on the archers and crossbowmen, as it can be suicidal to have them directly attack grunts.

There are 3 objects on this map that trigger events. It will take the orcs several turns to reach you, so that will give you time to trigger all of them and also steal your allies' villages. The objects and their events are:

1. Book at 20.17 - If Malin steps on it, gives +4xp

2. White monolith at 30.15 - If Malin steps on it, gives +8xp

3. Sunken boat at 31.9 - If a Walking Corpse steps on it, gives a swimmer-type Soulless unit.

The Defeat condition says "Orcs reach the outskirts of Parthyn". Mechanically, the "outskirts of Parthyn" are defined as an invisible vertical line marked by the signpost at 17.16 (hexes 17.13 - 17.20). If any orcish unit steps on a hex on or left of that line, you will immediately lose. This still gives you a lot of wiggle room, as you can still win if the orcs overrun your starting keep, as long as you don't let them get as far west as the signpost.

A Peaceful Valley

• Objectives: Occupy all of the Goblin villages
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
• Turns: 29/26/15 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk
• New Recruitment options: Vampire Bat (13 Gold)

In this small map you are tasked with occupying a Goblin settlement. There are 6 total villages on the map, and you win the scenario the moment you own all of them, even if you have not yet defeated the enemy leader.

The settlement is guarded by an L2 Goblin Knight in the mid-North of the level, who recruits (Goblin) Wolf Riders, Goblin Impalers and Goblin Rousers. He's not too rich, but don't underestimate him.

The villages hold rather nasty surprises: 0 to 2 Goblins will spring out of each village you capture, including those that you recapture. Thus the key is not to capture villages quickly, but rather to clear all defenders and kill the leader, allowing you to gang up on villages gradually. Ironically, this will allow you to capture all the villages more quickly than with a greedy approach.

One exception to this could be if you captured the last 2-3 villages with bats all on the same turn, thus winning the scenario suddenly without having to fight any of the remaining goblins. But since there are so few villages on this map, the early finish bonus is not that high, so the extra xp from killing all the goblins will probably be more valuable to you than a few extra gold in carryover.

In this level you will be able recruit Bats in addition to Walking Corpses. Bats are generally very useful creatures to have:

• They're effective scouts: Flying allows them to ignore otherwise-unfriendly terrain, and they have 8 (later 9) movement points.
• They're good at remote village capture
• While they aren't skirmishers, their mobility often makes it possible for them to fly around part of an enemy line and attack vulnerable units. They're similarly often able to flee to safety after having engaged.
• They're one of the few Undead-associated units which are not vulnerable to Arcane attacks.

... but in this scenario, they won't be useful to you: It's a small map, the villages are close rather than remote, and your L1 Vampire Bat will have a hard time with the spawning Goblin guards. You could theoretically recruit a Bat intending to just level it up for later recall, but there's XP to distribute elsewhere.

If not Bats, then - it's the Walking Corpse horde again. They'll be up against units with low HP and damage, so a few of them could even take out a Goblin, especially with some terrain advantage. Caution is still advised, though. You can easily lose several Walking Corpses trying to wear down a healthy Goblin Impaler at night. Also, the replenishment of your ranks by the dead Goblins is important here - snowball your forces. Finally, place Walking Corpses as cheap captured-village guards to prevent retaking by a convergence of the Goblin forces. You'll appreciate the irony of the dead Goblins continuing the same guard duty they were assigned to before, only this time on your behalf.

As you begin the level, Darken suggests you visit the swamp. Note that either Darken or Malin can do this, and it is usually easier to do it with Darken so that Malin can focus on recruiting the Walking Corpse horde. When Darken or Malin step onto a swamp hex, you'll be introduced to Ghouls - and get 3 of these for free. Get these into the line of fire ASAP, as your enemy has only melee attackers and you can quickly poison most of his army.

The enemy leader will send out an attack wave, starting to hit you by turn 3 or so. In fact, the Goblin Knight leader himself is likely to join this raid, despite it being out of sight of its fort - something you may not be used to from other campaigns. He'll likely retreat soon enough (even if he's not badly hurt), so don't focus on him. You should have many Walking Corpses to set up a defensive line along the edge of the forested region to the North-West of your fort - this will give you a terrain advantage. Alternatively, you could let the enemy units come further South, into the forest, buying an extra turn before they hit you for a better defensive bonus for them. Anyway, if you support your WCs with Malin and Volken you should be fine.

Your #1 focus in this scenario, like the last one, is feeding Malin xp. It will take a lot of kills to get him to level 2, but when you do he will get access to cold and arcane damage and a big damage output boost, which will make the next scenario much easier. Walking Corpses, ghouls, and bats will not be your most effective units later in the campaign, so all the xp from this level is best concentrated in Malin and Darken.

There is a key at 7.9 and a cage at 4.12. If you have Malin first step on the key and then the cage, you will get a Walking Corpse and a Soulless for free. However, you probably won't need them to win this scenario, and the turns spent triggering this event will be better spent getting kills for Malin.

Notes:

• Not all Goblin village hexes are on the grassy plain: There are 2 in the hills/Montains to the NW of the enemy leader's fort, one near your own fort (that one's revealed to you when you start out), and one that's very easy to miss to the North-East of the level, North of the Swamp. Make sure you plan your village sweep to include those.
• It's difficult to get through this level without the Ghouls, so don't wait too long before visiting the swamp

A Haunting in Winter

• Objectives: Reach the end of the cave
• Lose if: Malin Keshar dies
• Turns: no limit
• Starting units: Malin Keshar
• New Recruitment options: Ghoul (16 Gold)

This scenario is more a series of puzzles than a typical Wesnoth battle. Malin has to learn independence by fighting a variety of cave denizens with a few undead helpers.

The income on this level works in an unusual way. You are charged upkeep on your units as usual, but no matter how many villages you capture you never earn any income. This means you should spend all of your starting gold ASAP in the first 1-3 turns before it gets eaten up by your upkeep.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This scenario is intended to be a long exploration/puzzle challenge, so this walkthrough will include the solutions to the puzzles. I will try to list them all out sequentially, so that readers can just read the solution to whatever puzzle they are stuck on, without spoiling the following ones.

1 - Young Ogres

There are 2 partially damaged young ogres south of you. Your best units against them will be ghouls, so first recruit 2 ghouls and then retreat so that Malin is out of their reach. The ogres will attack and poison themselves. The next turn, move your ghouls and immediately recruit more if you can afford it. There is no time limit and you have a very limited number of units, so it can be a good idea to play very passively , rotate your injured ghoul out of harm's way, and let poison do its work, rather than risking losing a ghoul by pressing the attack. On the third turn, spend whatever remains of your gold and try to kill one or both of the ogres with Malin if possible.

2 - Ogre

After you kill the young ogres, all of your units will automatically heal to full and a lvl 2 ogre will appear to the north. Again, your goal is to avoid losing any units and to feed Malin the xp. So place a ghoul in the convenient bottleneck, allow the ogre to attack it and become poisoned. Then rotate the ghoul out and send it to the villages to the southeast, and replace it with either another ghoul if the ogre isn't poisoned yet, or a skeleton if it is. Play passively, don't attack, just allow the ogre to attack your skeleton, rotate the other skeleton in to take it's place, and repeat until the ogre is at low enough hp for Malin to take it out.

3 - Mudcrawlers

All of your units heal to full again after the Ogre dies. Now you are faced with the most difficult challenge of this scenario, a swarm of giant mudcrawlers. Your goal is to take them out while losing as few of your skeletal undead as possible, which is difficult given their melee AND ranged impact attacks. They are very vulnerable to cold and arcane and very resistant to impact damage, so if you have managed to get Malin to level 2 he will tear right through them, and if not then you're going to have trouble. There are two basic ways to tackle this challenge. The easier way, if Malin is far from level 2 and/or you came in with a low amount of gold and couldn't afford many ghouls, is to retreat into the western tunnel behind Darken Volk. Darken won't move, but if a mudcrawler steps next to him he will attack it, and his arcane/cold attacks are extremely effective. He will probably kill several of them outright, which is ok because he needs the xp to get to level 3 anyway, and you can steal the rest of his kills with skeletons or Malin. The harder way is to use the bottleneck north of your keep to allow mudcrawlers to come onto hexes 21.11 or 20.11 one at a time, then wear them down with ghouls until they're at a low enough hp that a skeleton has a good chance of finishing them off in one attack. Then rotate your skeletons back to heal, rinse and repeat. You will lose a couple ghouls and maybe your skeleton archer, but ideally you will come out of it with both skeletons at least partway to leveling up.

4 - Mudcrawler Spawn Puzzle

You will notice that there are only a limited number of lvl 1 Giant Mudcrawlers, but that there is also one pesky lvl 0 mudcrawler that just keeps coming back. Every time you kill it, a new one spawns from the glyph at 26.5. To disable this spawn point, you must: 1. Have Malin step on the storm trident at 29.10

2. Have Malin step on the forest at 23.6

3. Have Malin step on the glyph at 26.5

You will receive an xp reward based on difficulty level, and the mudcrawlers will stop spawning. Solving this puzzle is not necessary for finishing the scenario.

5 - Wolf pack

If you have enough skeletons and ghouls, this should be no problem. The wolves will trigger once you move any further west than the village at 10.4. Just position your skeletons and ghouls on good defensive terrain, poison everything you can, rotate your units back to heal, and try to farm kills for Malin and/or skeletons. Remember that there is no turn limit and you have poison, so time is on your side and you can afford to play very passively.

6 - Rat Spawn Puzzle

Just like the mudcrawlers, rats will continuously spawn from 8.7. Solving this puzzle is also not required to complete the level, but here are the steps: 1. Move Malin to the bottle at 2.2

2. Kill the scorpion at 8.9, then have Malin step on its corpse.

3. Move Malin to 8.7 (this can be difficult because of the rats respawning every turn, so just place Malin right behind an undead unit so that the unit can kill the rat and Malin can jump into its spot before it respawns.)

Again, you will get an xp reward based on difficulty level

7 - Ghost Training

Move Malin into the water at 5.11

ALTERNATE STRATEGY: The endlessly respawning mudcrawlers and rats on this level only provide 1 xp each when killed, but a very patient player can choose to farm them for as long as they want, which will of course make future levels easier. The way to exploit this maximally is with ghouls. Once they reach lvl 2 they gain the 'feeding' ability, and the endless supply of rats allows you to create a necrophage/ghast with hundreds of hp if you so desire, although Malin himself will start to get sick of it and complain at some point. This strategy is not at all required to beat the rest of the campaign, even on the hardest difficulty.

Spring of Reprisal

• Objectives: Either Defeat the Orc leaders, or move Malin Keshar to the end of the mountain pass
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die, or time runs out
• Turns: 26
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk
• New Recruitment options: Skeleton, Skeleton Archer.

NOTE AS OF VERSION 1.14: Although this map itself has not changed much since the campaign was revamped in version 1.14, the rest of the campaign has changed in one very significant way: In the past, you could recruit and level up ghosts in the previous scenario, whereas now there is no way to start this scenario with shadows or wraiths. Many of the original strategies for this scenario were based on using shadows/wraiths as part of assassination teams to take out the orcish leaders. Assassination strategies might still be possible with only lvl 1 ghosts, but their low damage output and high cost makes these strategies less viable since the 1.14 update. I have kept the descriptions of these strategies at the end of this walkthrough entry, and I would be interested to hear if people have pulled them off post-1.14, but I will describe a more straightforward skeleton-based strategy.

Note that if you defeat both orc leaders, you win immediately and do not need to move Malin to the signpost.

The spring thaw is underway, which means the ice on the river is thin. Whenever a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex, it will start to show cracks. The next time a non-flying unit starts its turn on an ice hex with cracks, it will die and the hex will change to deep water. Counterintuitively, this also applies to skeletons who have the submerge ability, explained as them getting stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river. You can take advantage of this by using your ghost/bat units to lure enemies onto the ice, or by having your skeletons step onto ice hexes to 'pre-crack' them, then stepping back off and inviting the orcs to take their place.

The only level 2 units your enemies will recruit in this scenario are Goblin Pillagers and Orcish Crossbowmen. These are very dangerous units for most of your undead due to their fire and impact attacks. Ghouls are useful in this scenario both because they are the least fire-vulnerable units you have access to, and because poisoning your enemies will encourage them to retreat back over the already-cracked ice in at attempt to reach villages, and hopefully fall through during the crossing. Mass skeletons are also a viable strategy, especially once you get some to lvl 2, because they can simply do enough damage to take these dangerous enemies out as quickly as possible. Large numbers of skeleton archers are less useful, even against the pillagers, as the nets will still do significant impact damage, and greatly slow down your attempts to kill them. And large numbers of bats and ghosts are not very useful because of their high cost, low hp, and vulnerability to fire.

The most straightforward strategy is to recruit mostly skeletons, maybe a ghoul or two, and recall your spectral servant and any skeletons with significant xp from last scenario. Set up a defensive line centered on the village at 16.13 (you can grab it with Darken Volk while your other units catch up). Prioritize taking out crossbowmen and archers, then pillagers, then grunts and wolf riders, and rotate your heavily wounded skeletons back to villages in your backfield to heal. You are ignoring the wolf riders and grunts at first because they use only melee blade attacks, so if they attack your skeletons you will hurt them more in retaliation damage due to your blade resistance, and if they attack your ghouls they will get poisoned, so you come out ahead either way with no effort. Save Darken Volk for his most important job, softening up Pillagers so your skeletons can finish them off. You can leave Malin in his keep for a while to keep recruiting reinforcements, but he should get moving by turn 12 at latest if he wants to grab the book at 24.6 for an xp bonus and then make a run for the signpost. Avoid engaging with the southern orcish leader and just use your group of skeletons and Darken to clear a path for Malin. In those first 12 turns, focus on leveling up some skeletons to revenants or deathblades, and also stealing some kills with Spectral Servant.

Below are assassination based strategies that were confirmed to be successful pre-1.14:

Players have used different strategies with success...

Option 1, defeat in detail: This is probably the easiest plan, with the highest chance of success. Attack the southern orc first, then the northern orc. You can recruit/recall mostly Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, supplemented by Vampire Bats. Ghosts and Bats can capture difficult to reach villages and move on, thus weakening your foes. Keep Malin Keshar and Darken Volk alive by hiding them in the mountains, which have two chokepoints. Either give them a small guard force or be prepared to redirect some of your leveled Ghosts to assist as needed.

Option 2, assassination: Kill both leaders at once. Recruit/recall almost exclusively Ghosts, Shadows, and Wraiths, and split them into two, one taskforce for each leader. A minimal strike force for one leader would be four Ghosts and two Shadows. Wait patiently across the river from the strongholds until darkness descends on turn 8. Then assassinate both leaders. If all goes well, the leaders will be dead by turn 9, for a nice gold bonus. Just in case it doesn't end so quickly, Malin Keshar and Darken Volk should have already been running into the deepest part of the southern mountains for safety. Exercise restraint with respect to capturing villages with bats or ghosts near the strongholds before the strike, as the enemy may divert units to intercept, which may interfere with your assassination plot.

Option 3, feint: Use ghosts to discourage the enemy from concentrating his forces at the lake. Sending a few ghosts over the mountains and river allows you to distract the computer into sending troops back to its base, because it interprets the closer enemies as a larger threat. By doing this, you can delay the southern orcs and meet the northern orcs at the lake. Just be careful, because if you distract them too long, they build up a substantial force (rather then sending troops in piecemeal like the computer usually does) which takes a while to cut through.

Schism

• Objectives: Defeat the Orc leaders
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
• Turns: 37
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk

The objectives in this scenario are a little misleading; while there are 3 Orc leaders on the map, it is actually enough to defeat any two of them, as the third will retreat.

Your enemies start out with unusually low starting gold, but they each have a BASE income of +12 or +14, and this is a big map with lots of villages so in the first few turns their incomes will quickly reach +20 or more. This means that time is not on your side and this favors rush strategies.

The enemy leaders are not quite evenly spaced; the northwest and southwest leaders are closer to each other than either of them is to the northeast leader. So for the quickest finish, the simplest strategy is an all-out rush against the northwest leader, followed by immediately rushing the southwest leader, aiming to finish before the eastern leader's forces can even reach you. Mostly ignore villages/income, accept some casualties, aim for healing in form of leveling up skeletons, and try to funnel xp into your loyal units and leader as usual. Assuming that you have a couple lvl 2 units from last scenario, you should be able to finish by turn 10 for a truly massive early finish bonus.

On lower difficulties or with a lot of carryover gold, you could try splitting your forces and trying to rush two leaders simultaneously. Which leaders you pick depends on your roster. Each enemy leader recruits a slightly different mix of units. All of them recruit grunts and archers, but they have these additional unit options that are unique to them: Northwest: goblin spearman, orcish crossbowman, orcish warrior Southwest: goblin pillager, wolf rider, goblin knight Northeast: troll whelp, troll, troll rocklobber, orcish assassin

If your strongest units are skeletal undead, then you will want to avoid the northeast leader with all of his impact-using units. If you managed to level up several wraiths in the last scenario, then they can be very effective against all of the trolls and you might want to instead avoid the pillagers with their powerful fire attacks.

Return to Parthyn

• Objectives: Kill Drogan, then escape to the Northwest / Kill Orc Leader
• Lose if: Malin Keshar dies or any people from Parthyn die before Drogan
• Turns: Unlimited
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and a Wraith, Shadow, or Spectre (if available)

Your first objective is to kill Drogan; if any other human unit dies before Drogan, you lose. You'll need to be careful here, because Drogan is surrounded by troops from the Parthyn garrison in his fort next to the ford - and they will attack. The trick is to get Drogan himself to come out from behind them, which should happen if he sees an "appleaing" target. Indeed, if you expose a unit with no ranged attack (preferably some L2/L3 with good resistance and HP, like a Revenant or a Spectre), say, in the NW hex of your keep - he will come shoot at it with his crossbow. With the help of a skirmisher and the troops in your castle you should not have much trouble doing him in on Turn 2. Don't skimp on recruitment during your first two turns, though - you'll be needing those troops, and not just for the Orcs.

When you've taken out Drogan you discover that, oops, your sister and the people of Parthyn hate you anyway. The Orcs have not yet gotten South over the ford (the first Goblin riders will probably arrive next turn). Also, your goal has changed: You're supposed to escape to a signpost on the North-western edge of the map (so, West of the Orc leader's keep). No problem - except for the two separate forces making their way in your direction...

So here are your options:

1. Face the Orcs head-on, so your entire advancing force manages to cross the ford as the Parthyn troops arrive at its Southern side. This makes sense if you've managed to dispatch most of Drogan's troops already in Turn 2, and all of them by Turn 3 - and if you've had gold for a good two turns of recruitment and some recruitment on Turn 3 even.
2. Leave the ford open for the Orcs to cross, and cross it yourself on its right edge (probably in the 1-hex-wide stretch of shallow water). Hopefully, the Orcs and Drogan's troops will notice each other, clash, and take some of the heat off of you. It might be helpful to have a few walking corpses as a distraction to direct your enemies to where you'd rather they go.
3. Stand your ground and fight. You don't have to flee immediately, after all. You will face stiff opposition though, especially when the city's recruits start arriving around Turn 5. You'll probably probably take significant casualties, which means you'll have to recruit more troops initially to account for that. Note that if you can't manage Option 1 it's rather unlikely you'll manage to survive this alternative.

So what should you choose? Well, let's consider Option 3 first. Your extensive recruitment means that you'll be losing quite a bit of gold per turn. However, this level has no turn limits, so if you manage to best your enemies (and not kill them) - you can capture all the villages, dismiss the lower-level troops, and recoup all the gold you want.

But here's the thing: If, instead of running away chased by Orcs and Humans, you simply kill the Orc leader - that will give your sister, and her forces, pause. And having reconsidered their assumption that you and the Orcs are in league, they will actually let you go and the level will end immediately. So - much less gold-bleeding due to your recruitment. That's why option 1 is probably the most appealing. Remember, though, that the Orc leader is an L3, and you want to keep your higher-level troops for the next scenario, so try not to get them killed. As always, a large contingent of Shadows should get the job done with some support from a unit which can dish out some initial punishment without dying.

A Small Favor - Part One

• Objectives: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk enter Karae' manor
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
• Turns: 28/26/22 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and Darken Volk

You start the level in the woods, near the outskirts of Tath. You're not actually going into the heart of the city - but the manor you want to infiltrate is on the inside of the guarded perimeter. It's night, and it's a safe area of Wesnoth, so there are few guards on duty and only a single officer in charge on call in a castle; that's General Taylor. The head trainer of the Tath city guard is having trouble sleeping apparently (maybe he has a nose for the undead?), and a couple of men who aren't manning the guard posts. Finally, the manor entrance proper is guarded by a couple of Mages.

It's not possible for Malin and Keshar to get past the guards and reach the manor undetected - only an invisible unit get in between consecutive posts. Also, if even a single guard is alerted, he'll immediately sound the alarm - which will make General Taylor wake up a hefty contingent of guardsmen.

The level has many villages - most within the Tarth city borders, owned by the enemy, but some are owner-less, in the woods. Those you can just go ahead and capture. The enemy villages may be captured without alerting the guards only by invisible units.

As for the guards themselves - on Medium difficulty, you'll be facing Spearmen (L1) mostly, with some Pikemen (L2) and Heavy Infantrymen (L1), and the mages are an L1 and an L2, so light fare; on Hard it should still be, well, not that hard. The head trainer is a Lieutenant, and then there's the General and possibly his troops. Note that your initial castle has only 3 hexes for recruitment - that's a hint.

There are a few options that players have tried with success:

1. Leader Assassination. Use several Shadows (or Nightgaunts) to assassinate the guard General; their Nightstalk ability gets them past the perimeter guards and directly to his castle. Take him out in one turn or two, or he will recruit heavily. Moreover, either the manor entrance watchmen, or some guards to the south of the castle, will be alerted. Thus it is somewhat risky to try this even with 3 Shadows.
   Keep Malin and Volk out of sight. After you've taken out the enemy leader, finish off the alerted guards, out of site of other ones; then pick off the remaining guardsmen one by one, while capturing villages at your leisure. Once that is accomplished, send Volk directly to the manor, but send Malin to the enemy commander's keep. Wait here accumulating cash each turn until the penultimate turn. On that turn or nearly before it, when you have many villages to support your troops, recruit all units you would like to take with you into the manor ("Part 2", the next scenario) - as you will not be able to recruit inside. Finally, move Malin towards the manor (note it takes 2 turns to get there from the keep). As you join Volk, the scenario ends; the gold won't carry over into the manor, but it will carry over to the first scenario after all the parts of "A Small Favor" are over.

1. Spectre-acular Cover Action. For this course of actions, no Shadows are necessary. You can use about 6 Wraiths/Spectres and slip them around the north of the map, as near to the manor entrance as possible, while staying out of sight. Malin and Darken Volk should take the same route, but can't get as far as the Ghosts. Then take out as many enemies as you can with your Wraiths, targeting the Mages first, and rush towards the manor with your heroes. You should be inside before the battle gets ugly. But - remember to recruit what you'll need later on before leaving the woods.

1. Bait and Ambush. Each guard will only leave its post to attack you if it can personally see you, and General Taylor doesn't actually recruit all that much. So, pick a lone guard to be the first you alert - and make sure you kill it on the first round of your attack. If you can do so with a couple of Shadows - all the better, since, you'll disappear on the next turn. Then let the enemy force come to you - yes, it seems Taylor will also not continue to recruit. After his force is gone, continue picking off one guard at a time, luring each of them away to where you have sufficient units to gang up on the poor soul. In some cases you could risk it and do 2 at a time. This strategy is more likely to work if you have a few higher-level units to recall.

Remember to stay safely out of sight as much as possible (Ctrl+V will show you the enemies' moves, and their sight range is +1 of that, just like their attack range).

Which units to bring into the manor?

Troubled Adept asks: "Dear Walkthrough authors: I have raised many units from the dead, and now as I'm about to embark on a field trip to this lovely cave, they're all pestering me to take them with me! Whatever should I do?"

Well, dear Troubled, remember that there are no villages in caves, which means no healing for your troops, except by leveling-up or if they have draining attacks. So Wraiths and Spectres are probably the most useful. Nightgaunts, and perhaps Shadows, are also useful in that their skirmishing ability allows them to move into the back of a narrow space and kill on the same turn as first being noticed; but - they're not as useful as outside, since the manor is lit so they'll be visible. You should have some units which can take a beating - either sacrificial L1s (e.g. Ghouls or Skeletons), or higher-HP ones (Necrophage, Revenant). It's particularly useful to have units which are close to leveling-up - even if they're otherwise not so useful - since you can have them up front at the end of a turn, take some damage, and then either heal immediately or with another kill. Skeletons are pretty good for this. Dark Sorcerers have reasonable HP will take no-or-little damage when attacking non-Mage Loyalist units (e.g. Spearmen, Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers etc.) and will hold their hown against Mages too.

As for how many units to bring in - don't overdo it. On Medium difficulty, 7 or 8 reasonable units in addition to Malin and Darken should be enough. You will need that carry-over gold later, you see.

An interesting option for Parts 2 and 3 is to bring in a Walking Corpse or Soulless (if you don't have a Necromancer) - which allows you to make additional sacrificial units inside. If you're short on better units, this might not be such a bad idea. Remember than for the price of 2 recalls you get 5 corpses to start with...

A Small Favor - Part Two

• Objectives: Defeat Mage Lady Karae then move through the northwest passage
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
• Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Malin Keshar, Darken Volk and any units that survived the previous scenario

• Other: You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present

You start with the units you recalled at the end of the last mission, but you don't have to pay their upkeep for this scenario (nor are there any villages, anyway). Since there are no villages, you won't be able to heal your units unless they have a drain attack.

Anyway, your first task is to kill Karae, who is a Silver Mage and is put into one of the rooms at random. Each room is filled with mages of one variety or another. They won't leave the rooms of their own accord, although a couple of Swordsmen and other human units wander the halls, but these shouldn't be a big deal. The mages, however, can be quite deadly. Always make sure you have sufficient forces to wipe out at least three Red or White Mages before opening a door. (You open doors by placing a unit in front of the door). However, most rooms only have one or two Mages in it, and they may be level one Mages. The skirmishing of Shadows and Nightgaunts is useful in wiping out mages. If you let the mages counter-attack, you will risk losing one or more units. Head northwest with Malin and move on.

There doesn't seem to be any bonus for an early finish, so if you get the objective early, you can hold off and harvest some XP.

A Small Favor - Part Three

• Objectives: Find the book and then escape
• Lose if: Malin Keshar or Darken Volk die or time runs out
• Turns: 30/27/25 (easy/medium/hard)
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and any units that survived the previous scenario
• Other
  • You can't recruit or recall; only the units from last scenario will be present
  • You no longer control Darken Volk

Darken Volk will operate separately with an army of allied undead. Hmmm, in all previous missions you commanded him directly... could this be foreshadowing? Head to the northwest to grab the book. Then head to the northeast to exit.

[Mal Shubertal: The enemy here is all mages, which can kill even one of your level 3's if you get unlucky. But on hard in 1.12.2, Darken Volk's army is strong enough to take them by itself. So I just let them do the dirty work and headed straight to the exit once Volk picked up the book. ]

Alone at Last

• Objectives: Take the book from Darken Volk and bring it back to Malin's castle
• Lose if: Malin Keshar dies
• Turns: 24
• Starting units: Malin Keshar and one unit
• Other: Ghosts and Bats (and the rest of their unit trees) cannot pick up the book

The situation is that you must take the book from Darken Volk, but two additional forces will appear in the middle of the battle, bent on killing both your army and Volk's, making the task more than a little difficult. When the battle reaches its peek, you probably won't have much money (and may have Malin away from a castle), and your forces will be outnumbered and at great disadvantage.

The two extra forces are:

1. Sir Cadaeus the Paladin is bent on making both you and Darken Volk pay for your attack on the city of Tath:
   • Arrives on turn: 8.
   • Inital force: 2 Paladins, one Mage of Light (+ Cadaeus who will stay put to recruit)
   • Finances: (on Medium) 150 gold on arrival + 20 base income.
   • Recruits: (on Medium) a Mage of Light, 4 mostly Heavy Infantry, 1 L1 Mage.
2. Dela Keshar is making good on her word to climb up the ladder for inheritance.
   • Arrives on turn: 12.
   • Initial force: None.
   • Finances: (on Medium) 220 gold on arrival + 20 base income.
   • Recruits: (on Medium) 1 Swordsman, 1 Longbowman, and a mix of L1 Loyalist and Outlaw units (Spearman, Bowmen, Thugs) - like in Parthyn basically.

Now, this is a small level, and there really isn't room for 4 forces on it... your castle is on the West of the level, slightly to the South; Darken Volk is on the East and slightly to the North. Cadaeus sets up camp in the South-Eastern edge, and Dela in the middle of the Northern edge. Your and Dela's side is separated by a narrow river, which at some point widens to surround a small island; and there are two connecting bridges, although the crossing is not a big deal at most points.

Now, Cadaeus' forces are extremely dangerous. While there's not too many of his units, the Paladins and the Mage of Light are the Humans' Undead-killer units, and, indeed, will kill most of your units in a single turn at daytime. And - guess what? He arrives on the second night, so his forces will start hitting you and Volk during the third day. ... but here's your silver lining: Cadaeus will advance on Darken Volk first, unless you're very much in his way, and no less importantly, Volk's forces will attack Sir Cadaeus' - if you've not already engaged most of them by that time. Effectively, Volk could be a bit of an ally, albeit one which is trying to kill you.

When Dela shows up, you will have lost any land to which you can run and hide. On the other hand, at least you're better equipped to deal with her units, and she arrives at Dusk. The Parthynians (sigh)... poor judgement through and through.

Remember, though, that this level is not about defeating all enemy forces, nor even all enemy leaders. There are just two things you need to do, which are kill Darken Volk and bring the McGuffin, uh, I mean the book, back to your castle. Note that not all units can carry the book. Indeed, it so happens that all the fast units can't be used: No Bats and no Ghosts (nor Shadow, Wraiths, Spectres and Nightgaunts). The best choice is probably a Dark Sorcerer with the Quick trait, or Malin himself; and even with one of these units it takes 4 long turns to make it back to your castle... while probably engaged in painful rear-guard combat.

A silver lining is that for the next level you don't really need extra money above the minimum starting gold, so you can at least splurge with recruitment.

At any rate, here are two proven strategies for clearing the level:

1. Assasinate, Grab, Run. Recall several squads of units:
   Assasination squad: Nightgaunts and Shadows - less than 2+2 would probably not be enough)
   Book carrier squad: Dark Sorcerers, Wraiths (escort only), Spectres (escort only), and slower units if you must - but not that many overall.
   Diversion/cannon fodder: Go cheap here and mostly recruit.
   The assassins will circle Volk's forces from the North and assassinate him. The carriers and escort make a run for it; along the way, don't get too deep into confrontation with Volk's forces - you have a book to grap after all - but you don't have to completely avoid them either. Try to have the diversion get close enough to Volk's troops to make them want to attack. Run back with _all_ the carriers and the escort once you get the book. You will lose units in rear guard action during the retreat, but you can at least try to choose which ones. Some assassins might need to lay down their (un)lives for the (dubious) cause.
2. The Northern End Around. Summon all your good troops and move everyone almost all the way North. Try to avoid full engagement with Volk for as long as you can - which will not be easy, since his units should be making contact by Turn 4.
   Once Sir Cadaeus arrives, Volk's forces will shift attention Southwards, and you can start moving East (still being North of the river). As you do so, Dela will arrive close to your forces, where she will build a stronghold and recruit. You now turn the tables on her and surround her stronghold - thus preventing her troops from moving and her from recruiting. YOu know kill her recruits, then her self (this was not possible with older versions of Wesnoth, now it is.) Make sure you dispatch her quickly, or else Sir Cadaeus' forces will crash into your own after killing Volk. Now face Sir Cadaeus' assault wave, while send a few units. off South into the river, out again and to Volk's castle to get the book and take it back to your stronghold.
   A variant of this strategy is to send, during the first few turns, some units due South-East as a diversion, trying to pull Volk's attention Southward. This feint can use some Ghost, Bats, and possibly even Malin himself, as the enemy really likes to focus on him for some reason...

Whatever initial course you take, the end game is the same: you will need to retrieve the book with a nonflying unit and head west, back to your stronghold.

Grabbing villages after a few at the start won't help you in this scenario. You will likely end negative on gold.

If you decide you need more gold to play this scenario, you have to go all the way back three scenarios to A Small Favor - Part One. There, one way to get gold is to use Shadows to steal the enemy's villages without him noticing. However, your first option above, the grab and run, should not require much gold.

Note: This scenario was rebalanced some time after v1.8.5, so if you are playing an old version, there will be many differences.

Descent into Darkness

• Objectives: Defeat the Troll leader
• Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed
• Turns: n/a
• Starting units: Mal Keshar

The first segment of the mission is pretty self-explanatory. After you reach the small keep you need to decide which way to send your troops to the large castle, there is a main passage and two side passages. I'm not sure it matters, but I successfully advanced through the main passage. You will face some high level trolls, including Troll Shamans capable of throwing deadly fireballs at your Undead minions. Wraiths and Spectres and quite good at killing Troll Shamans, since they deal arcane damage. You just have to make sure that you kill the Shamans before they get to attack you. Note that all the trolls deal impact damage, which your Skeletons are weak against, so you may want to avoid recalling your Skeletons.

Since this scenario is quite easy, it's a good chance to train your units and see strange monsters. On the other hand, the Campaign is almost over, so there's not much point to it...

In both side passages you can find a Troll Shaman, a few Trolls and lots of villages. But the left passage is more interesting: in the middle of some water there's a surprisingly lush tree - which, in fact, is an Ancient Wose, waiting to ambush you. Shadows and Wraiths will kill him easily, though. At the top left of this room there's a path that leads to the hardest step of the scenario: 3 Giant Spiders. Try to make them follow you outside through the corridor to surround them one by one.

However, it is possible to avoid all that if you wish. Once you find your castle, just recall at least two Nightgaunts, three to be safe, and send them up the main passageway. They can kill the troll leader before he knows what hit him, leading to an instant victory.

Endless Night

• Objectives: Defeat the foolish hero
• Lose if: Mal Keshar is destroyed
• Turns: Unlimited
• Starting units: Mal Keshar

And so we reach the conclusion of the campaign. We learn that Mal Keshar—formerly Malin—has become a somewhat powerful lich that has gained a reputation for himself for fighting the orc armies (and anyone who comes in his way) every summer.

For this reason, heroes of every race that has been victimized by Mal Keshar's troops follow him to his lair, wanting to finally put an end to his advances. In this scenario you will be fighting this foolish hero, which will be either an elf, a loyalist, an outlaw, a dwarf, or an orc, chosen at random. You will be fighting them in your cave, so you have some advantage, but every time you beat one of these heroes, the scenario will repeat itself and a new hero will come for you, with more gold on his side, so it will be increasingly difficult to fight their armies.

You can play this scenario as many times as you want to. You really have to beat only the very first hero—when Malin is defeated by any subsequent hero, the victor will give a short monologue and the campaign will end.

Addition by cMaster: If you care to play this scenario more than just a few times, it might be worth noting the small cavity to the right at the bottom of the map. You can easily place 11 units inside (you won't be able to recall more than 10 units + Mal Keshar) and it's got a choke point of only two hexes. Use this to chew away any enemy foolish enough to enter the choke point, and forget about the seven villages. Your enemy will not be able to pay the upkeep of his troops anyway. Correctly used you should not have to fear any number of enemies!