LotI Walkthrough-Part2-Chapter08
Part II, Into the Light, Chapter 8, Götterdämmerung
Generally
You'll be fighting a lot of units that are liminal, and have good arcane resistance, so have sources of illumination and darkens and a good mix of attack types.
Contents
Mysterious Invasion
[WHU] This one is really easy to lose. Your enemies are very tough. Recruit a mob of walking corpses, who will do pretty much nothing but keep the enemies off your leaders while you whittle them down. Do grab easy kills with your corpses to refresh your ranks where possible. The kids should pretty much stay out of the fight, though pick up some cheap XP at the end if you can.
[WHU] Make sure to read about the corruption special on Vritra's dark blast attack, so you know not to use it, now, or in the future.
[Thrash] Kill tougher units with Redeem. Use area impact spells and undead to whittle the enemy down. Use leadership from Efriam. Vritra is going to get separated soon, if you haven't been hoarding gems, which she will have access to, start doing that now. Both Krux and Vritra will be on their own eventually, so work on getting them stronger and an effective team.
Overpowered
[WHU] Recruit a castle of walking corpses, then run. Keep the kids covered, while getting to the next castle quickly to recruit another load of fodder. Repeat as necessary. The family moves well and is well protected in the woods. Go for the early finish.
United
[WHU] Efraim can pretty much take care of the southern enemy single-handedly, though if he gets slowed repeatedly so that he cannot advance it might be useful to send a little help. The demons to the west are kind of nasty. Let your allies weaken them up, and use Lethalia to pick off weak units who don't have a lot of friends in the area. When you're ready to go in for the kill, use overwhelming force, like prophets with unholybane. The demons to the east aren't much of a problem (for you, they can really take a toll on your ally who does not pick his battles wisely), you should be able to roll right over them when you're done in the west.
[WHU] Two or three Gryphon Riders with hit and run slow (preferably with poison/incinerate) can make a huge difference against the western forces. Keep the really nasty demons slowed, and your ally can usually fight the demons to a stalemate, though they'll need your help taking out the leader.
[Thrash] You can now recall all units, including undead from Chapter VI, and recruit all sorts of L1-2 units. Vritra will be kidnapped at start of next scenario so make sure she is well equipped at the end of the scenario. Beelzebub possible in SE (43,38) and if present, it may be most effective to deal it first. Note that your allies can kill the southern enemy leader and surround the other two and make it hard to kill them.
[Thrash] In the story preamble now, you apparently get a chance to boost both Efaim's and Lethalia's redeem capability by a level. Not clear if there is a negative consequence...
[WHU] To clarify, if your redeem level is below a certain threshold, you will be given the option to have it advanced to that level, skipping as many levels as it takes. It is a horrible deal. Turn it down and start using redeem whenever you can.
Kidnapped
[WHU] One castle of units should be plenty. Follow the path southwest, then southeast.
Investigations
[WHU] Sneak around the woods outside of town. When a single unit comes to the edge of the woods, pop out and redeem him, then get back in the shadows. You should have plenty of turns to redeem everyone, then get on with the primary mission, which is to visit about five specific houses. Don't let any of the guards get next to you.
Gladiatrix
[WHU] Grab the gear to the north. Fight a few units, one at a time.
Unimportant Revolution
[WHU] Use caution. Some of the enemy do a LOT of damage, and you don't want to get surrounded by a few of those. Use the river and your allies to wear the enemy down a bit, then overwhelming force focused on killing his most dangerous units. Be sure to check the enemy resistances before recalling. You want to save some gold for the next scenario, recalling two castles is probably too much here.
[Thrash] Possible Beelzebub obelisk at 37,11. Note that death of Krux is a loss, but he can probably survive for a half dozen turns if you want to deal with Beelzebub first.
The Desert
[WHU] Another long scenario where you encounter large groups of dangerous enemies, plus a steady stream of demons from the northeast. There is a cave that runs along the east side of the map with some gold and some goodies. I recall a couple castles, start south and visit the trader, then continue south and fight off a batch of demons. Then it's east to deal with the saurians and a couple other factions, then follow the road southeast and then south. About the time the road pretty much ends, I notice how few turns I have left considering the progress I've made so far, panic, and send one of my leaders to run right around the various factions, ending quite early with no early finish bonus.
[Thrash] Notice the Trader due south of your starting position. Also a Beelezebub monolith is possible just west of center in center of map. You cannot reach the southern edge of the map in the cave but there are a couple nice artifacts there. I usually create two bands, one that goes south through the desert and one that goes east and then down into the cave. This approach will take about all the units I have.
[Thrash] Update: Seems like this scenario has gotten tougher, especially the caves. There is a constant trickle of demons from the NE and there are enough enemies in the cave to make progress hard for a smaller force, so it's possible to get bottled up. If you want to go after the goodies in the cave, go in heavy. There is an exit to the west from the south end of the caves, so you can finish the scenario relatively quickly from there.
Gladiatrix - The Path to Glory
[WHU] Back to the arena, this time with some friends. Some friends that you really, really, want to keep alive. I try to get four units with a lot of HP so that I can block the entrance to the north building, along with some healing. I also like to advance the battlerager as quickly as possible (thorns/weak reflect/reflect), and increase his number of attacks, or anything else I can just to keep him alive. Slow will be crucial here, probably some clever crafting, and don't forget those potions.
[Thrash] As WHU mentions, you have access to all your gems but not all your items, so hopefully you've been hoarding gems. You can turn the Battlerager into a beast by giving them extra attacks, slow, draining, and absorption. Note if you give some unit the ability to create undead this will be useful later for fodder.
Ruins of Wesnoth
[WHU] Efraim can handle the humans alone. Send powerful elves south. A couple of fast, powerful units with slow may be able to rush down and take out the southern leader (he'll show up in a few turns) while the rest of the army draws his forces away. Lethalia and a few quick, powerful units should be able to get into the northern castle before that enemy shows up, hurt him and he should leave the keep open for you to claim (you may not want to stand on his keep before he arrives, at one time bad things would happen if you did).
[Thrash] The two approaches I've used are to either create two or three bands. If you create three bands, send the tougher two the south and west and a relatively weak one to take out the humans (good chance to level some weak units). With two bands, send one south and the other southwest to crush the humans and then head north.
Odd World
[WHU] There is no early finish bonus, but you really need to move anyway. Your enemies, demons and imps, will be spawning constantly and coming for you from all directions. A force of 15-20 works well, including healers and flyers. Prophets, or other very hard hitting units, with unholybane would be very useful. Villages don't provide any income, but they heal +16. There are items and gold scattered around the map.
[WHU] You'll also get a wonderful introduction to the most annoying trait in BFW, temptation. If one of your unit starts its turn next to a unit of the opposite gender with temptation, your unit will be unable to attack that turn (unless maybe you use a greater healing potion, I've never tried it, just thought of it). This is especially frustrating when you've been slowed and can't get out of the way. Unlike most special traits, or even some of the basic ones, I'm pretty well convinced the AI knows EXACTLY how to make optimum use of temptation. Keep a couple of fast prophets with unholybane (or similar) behind the front and rear lines to run out and slaughter those demons whenever you see them.
[WHU] Start off going south until you get to the mountains. Send Lethalia and some flyers or mountain travellers south through the mountains to take out a boss. Send the rest of the army east, where you will fight in the mountains (there is also a path around the mountains for units that can't go through). About the time you get through the mountains and start north, you'll probably need a rather powerful rear guard. Every turn you spent getting through (and around) the mountains, your enemy was spawning units behind (and in front, and to the side) of you. Use penetrates and hit and run, skirmishers, and flyers to ensure you are constantly making forward progress.
[WHU] Around the time you make sight of the last enemy boss, and you feel confident that you can spare them, send a couple relatively powerful flyers northeast. Between the mountains is a route over a lake of lava that leads to the exit. Have one of your flyers continue to the northeast into a cavern where there are a couple items.
[WHU] If you have been actively using your redeem attack, you should have noticed that it is starting to sometimes redeem multiple units, particularly when they are low level. Those big packs of imps are just asking to be redeemed.
[Thrash] Possible Beelzebub monolith at at 21,15 (just north of enemy leader).
Gladiatrix - The Reckoning
[WHU] Move slowly, kill everything. At first you'll be attacked out of the dark, then by a much nastier unit that's initially invisible. There's no turn limit, heal as much as you need. Charge out of the building in force, or draw the enemy into the corridor, depending on your strengths. You'll fight a couple enemy units at a time at first. Take out the boss to the northwest, then head southeast. When you get near the southern end of the map, you'll be taking on a bunch of non-trivial enemies (you'll see why I strongly recommended protecting your friends in the arena). If you still have all your arena allies, and you've geared them well and levelled them, just use your unit-specific strengths against against the enemy weaknesses. If not, good luck.
[WHU] Once you get into the city, it gets much easier, for a little while. Take out the bosses and anyone who breathes your air. Then head north into the building to fight three batches of those nasty demons before heading to the northwest corner exit. You need to fight them on your terms, where only one of them can attack at a time and you can retreat to heal. Each batch will be a bit harder than the one before. It is not uncommon for me to do a major retreat when fighting the third batch, stringing them out so I can pick them off one at a time, often using my unit with teleport to sneak behind them as they chase me.
[Thrash] Despite warnings at start, there is no urgency. Take your time. A unit able to create undead here will be useful to create fodder, fairly effective fodder against humans actually. At the SE corner of the city, one way to lose is that Vitra on defense can kill units so effectively that they eventually overwhelm her.
The River of Flame
[WHU] This is a scenario I've always played in a manner which I suspect is completely unintended. Recall a few powerful units and a couple healers, and maybe a unit or two you want to give some XP. Block the bridges to your starting location, and pick up convenient kills. Meanwhile, Lethalia flies right over the lava, clockwise around the edges of the map, perhaps killing and/or redeeming a few lone units along the way, to meet the troll in the southeast without ever having to actually work for it. Major early finish bonus. Cheater.
[Thrash] Look for a possible Beelzebub monolith at 16,16
Finally Together
[WHU] Focus on elves if you have them. Make the enemy fight your army while you are in the forest and they are on the path. Use your army and Vritra's team to draw the enemy forces away from their leaders, while a few fast, powerful units circle around and assassinate the leaders.
[Thrash] You can use villages and teleporters to get help to Vritra quickly and mount an attack using her units while the rest of your units catch up. Possible Beelzebub monolith at 34,17 (East end of forrest corridor).
Jungle Hell
[WHU] It's a jungle, so elves are the obvious choice, and they do fine, but while they have good defenses in forests, their natural forest movement isn't of much value here. This is yet another scenario of huge packs of demons that are triggered by your forward progress, so you don't necessarily need to move that fast, and you'll be standing around most of the time anyway. Also, you can do the 'transport all units' to Efraim every 10 turns thing. A lot of the terrain is impassible, for you, but not for some of the demons.
[WHU] You'll fight two packs of demons at the beginning. I find that Lethalia casting explosive slow on the pack to the east backed up by a few powerful units can take care of them pretty easily, while Efraim and a lot of support (including explosive slow), work on the pack coming up from the south. Let the enemy come to you, don't chase at them and trigger yet another pack.
[WHU] Once those two are taken care of, I follow the river south and then west, then south through the gap in the woods, and generally make my way south, moving east and west a little where opportunity presents, always keeping the terrain in my favor as much as possible. I don't know that the actual route matters, I've just always gone that way and it works for me. There are plenty of turns for you to move slowly and not trigger too many packs at once. If you fight the demons in the middle of the forest it will limit the number of them which can attack on any one turn.
[dwarftough] Masterpace on the forums described a funny way to cheese and skip this scenario if you want to: https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?p=670591#p670591
Briefly, the idea is to craft Nightwalkers for Lethalia, Krux, Vritra and one Deflector of Light for darkening, so they can hide in shadows in the keep for all day long. Then, Efraim takes the Woodland Cloak with ambush, moves strictly through the forest and reaches the south evading any fights.
[Thrash] Another interesting way to play this level is to take advantage of the fact that the AI/enemy units will completely focus on Efriam, Lethalia, Vritra and Krux if you keep them together. So put the four them with a solid force that stays at the north end in a defensible position (e.g. north side of the river just south of where you start). Create a second highly mobile force with some hit'n'run capabilities and have it move down the map, triggering enemies to appear. The enemies will basically ignore your second force to rush north at Efriam/Lethalia/Vritra/Krux unless your second force actually gets in their way, so just have them stay out of the way, picking off some enemies as they are safely able to and they will basically be able to walk down the map without much fighting while Efriam/Lethalia/Vritra/Krux and your first force kill all the enemy that will slowly trickle towards them. Any unit reaching the south end of the map triggers victory.
Gates of Hell
[WHU] No gold carryover, so you may as well spend it. The first three leaders should go down pretty quickly, and then it will get just a bit harder with demons coming from the south, and spawning occasionally from the east and west. When you get to the bottleneck there are two paths, use both of them. Lethalia could use the western path, in case you want to rush the exit. You'll encounter a boss who has a lot of HP and hits hard. Use an explosive slow on an enemy next to him each turn to slow him, then hit him really hard with units that are resistant to impact and cold, perhaps using a holy potion if you don't have unholybane attacks already. You have plenty of turns, in theory you could incinerate him and then draw him into the open where you could hit him many more times per turn, possibly even running Lethalia around behind him to the exit, but I've never found that necessary.
[dwarftough] An important note, I believe, for higher diffuclties: here you have to think and equip Krux and Vritra in the best items. You will begin Chapter 10 without your main storage, with only a few gems and random items, and the only items you can carry over there are items equipped on Krux and Vritra. It probably makes sense to give them some premier items, ofc you need items for Chapter 9 on Efraim/Lethalia/their soldiers, but they have the whole Inferno to pillage before the most difficult fights. Particularly I think that if you have the heal+40 ring, you'd better equip it on Krux/Vritra. In Chapter 9 you have all your recall list and most likely a lot of healers, in chapter 10 you have quite few against demon hordes, and Krux's the only basic healer
[WHU] Consider using some of your potions on Krux and Vritra at or near the end of this scenario. You won't be able to carry the potions with you to Chapter 10, but you can carry their effects. For example, taking a Potion of Authority will allow your hero to have the leadership of a level six unit, which will help a lot, in the beginning of Chapter 10.
[WHU] Sending a couple items with greater illumination or darkens severely with Krux/Vritra is probably a good idea if possible. If you have to choose, darkens will be of more use, perhaps one or two Deflector of Light.
[Thrash] It used to be the first seven you recalled in this scenario, would be the seven you start with in the next scenario but now it seems to be somewhat random. Still I think recalling a good killing force in your first seven units is a good idea and will help you next scenario. Demons actually appear hidden by the gate and them emerge and attack. BTW, I believe you start Chapter 10 now with all your gems, so it makes sense to start hoarding them again for Vrita and Krux to use in that chapter.
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