TheHammerOfThursagan

The walkthrough is based on medium difficulty, and there are comments covering hard difficulty too.

Campaign Strategy

This is quite a balanced campaign - basically all the unit types available to you are useful. Here are some overall hints:

Angarthing is perhaps the best support unit ever invented. He has two magical impact attacks, one of which slows, he’s very fast and, most importantly, he can give a Leadership-like 25% attack boost to units on the same level (so, once you have him at L3, he gives even your L3 units a boost). As he levels up he becomes able to cure, and then heal +4. As he is your only healer for a while (until scenario 8), make it a priority to level him up all the way. Angarthing makes fighting much easier.
You gain the ability to recruit mages from mid-campaign. Don't let all your mages die as you then lose the recruit ability. You want to level up at least two white mages as soon as practical after that - you need two +8 healers by the final level.
But red mages are useful too; you get a free arch mage at Medium, but at hard (Lord) you want to level up a red mage instead. A red mage/arch mage, backed by Angarthing, is excellent at dealing large amounts of damage against enemies in good defensive spots on the final level.
Dwarf Lords are the backbone of any dwarven army; you will want ~4 by the final level, and more is better.
It is very useful to level up one or two scouts all the way to an explorers, as their ranged attack is excellent against woses. 2-3 thunderguards are useful too, for the scenarios against dwarves.
Preserve the Gryphon Rider - you are not able to recruit more. He can only reach L2 but that is worth having, as then it can beat any enemy scouts that it runs into.

Scenarios

At The East Gate

Objectives: Defeat Orcish leader
Lose if: Aiglondur dies or turns run out
Turns: 32/30/28 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Gryphon Rider

This is pretty simple. Send a mixed force of Thunderers, Fighters, and Guardsmen along the road, and a few units south into the hills if the orcs go that way. That path through the forest can be deadly – they will surround you if they can, and can heal at the base of the path. Any Dwarf in forest is weak, while Wolf Riders are at a defensive advantage. Send the Gryphon Rider off village gathering to the north. The enemy recruited mostly Wolf Riders and Grunts, with a few Archers as I neared his keep.

Try and keep your units alive (this can be tricky to achieve while moving forward – his units are dangerous, and some are very fast – make sure hurt units stay out of reach, rather than failing to notice that an almost dead Wolf Rider being chased by a Gryphon is still a threat), and try to level at least one dwarf – your leader is an excellent choice. Play according to the basics, and you’ll have no trouble.

Reclaiming The Past

Plot only - here you gain Angarthing.

Strange Allies

Objectives: Defeat Bandit leader
Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Marth-Tak (Orcish leader) die or turns run out
Turns: 30/28/24 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing

In this scenario, you are allies with the orcs, and must defeat the bandits, who start at the east end of the map, and with quite a fair bit of gold. The bandits recruited mostly footpads and outlaws, but a few thugs, and a poacher or two near the end. I recalled only one turns worth of dwarves and the Gryphon, and sent them straight east, through the river at the ford. Your allies are an incredible help in this level; once you reach the bandit's side of the river, the orcs should already have engaged most of their troops to the south. One good way to go about the rest of this battle is to keep your units off to one side, and grab the finishing blows, especially to those level 2 outlaws. You should have 3 or 4 people (hopefully including Aiglondur and Angarthing) leveled by the end of this battle.

[ Cph - at Lord, the ally isn't strong enough to survive unaided (1.8.1). Turn 1 you should recruit a small strike force to go east to take out the enemy boss (just a couple of recruits should do to go with your leaders, or ideally a couple of quick recalls) plus recall the gryphon rider to take the more scattered villages and snipe enemies for XP; turn 2, recruit some dwarvish fighters (5 should be enough) to go and block up the plain in front of the ally's keep (they can grab all his villages on the way). Mainly you want to hold the ford near his keep as this is the most direct route and so is where the first enemy units would reach him from. Your aim isn't to defend, it is to stop or save the ally boss from suicidally attacking the enemy around turn 8. You just need to buy the turn or two that your strike force needs to finish sneaking around the north of the map and take out the enemy boss.]

Troll Bridge

Objectives: Defeat Troll leader
Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out
Turns: 20/16/12 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing
Other: You loot 200 gold from the troll

This one was a piece of cake. Recall a castle-full of troops, and set camp at the first line of trees and mountains, to the north side of the road. Your opponent can only recruit Level 1 Troll Whelps, so he doesn't have much attack strength. After the first onslaught, the remaining Whelps either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the enemies with weaker units, as it's a great chance to gain some experience. Also, after you kill the Troll leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.

[ Cph - at Lord, the trolls can recruit Trolls. They are still no real problem though - recall a steelclad, a couple of thunderers close to leveling, and fill the rest of the keep with recruited thunderers; just the 1 round of recruit/recall is fine. Push a couple of strong melee units forward to take the shock of the first attack (there are a few hill tiles conveniently placed, and you must not allow any trolls onto these), then swarm them with thunderers. Angarthing 'slow' attack is useful. ]

Invaders

Objectives: Defeat enemy leaders (3)
Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out
Turns: 40/40/40 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and another dwarf
Other: Hostile villagers come out of some villages when first flagged

When you flag your first village, you will discover that there are quite a number of outlaws hiding in it. This can be your undoing, but it can also work to your advantage: Try not to flag too many villages and retain a tight group. That way, your opponents will be quite preoccupied fighting the outlaws and you won't have to fight them simultaneously. Move in a tight pack along the southern border of the map and take out your enemies one by one. When I finally reached the northern orc, his troops were happily brawling away with the outlaws in the northwest...

The randomization on the bandit spawning system is also another advantage. Occasionally, you may play a map in which all the villages you flag are bandit-free.

[ Cph - A simple defensive strategy can work too. There is a convenient line of hills and woods just east of the start; form a defensive line there, but you can afford to take and hold all the villages in the south-west and deal with the ambushes there first, as the enemy won't get to you fast. Just don't get tempted to take any villages further east, as you won't want to deploy units further east to extricate your ambushed unit. Your army should be a mix of fighters and thunderers, including some recalls near leveling and a few already at L2.

Once the enemy's weakened units (from fighting outlaws) hit your defensive line, you get lots of XP from finishing them off; with care you can attack and roll forward, killing lots of enemy units each turn. Once you have crushed the first wave of enemies you can start clearing up. ]

High Pass

Objectives: Move Aiglondur to signpost at end of pass
Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing or Ratheln die or turns run out
Turns: 24/18/12 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing
Other: Friendly Arch Mage, Ratheln, available in a village near the middle of the path

Recalling your Gryphon Rider is a must on this scenario, he will be your eye in the fog. Dwarves just can't see very far in the snow. The rest is pretty straight forward, just make sure you meet the Arch Mage hiding in a village near the center of the pass. Time is pretty tight in this scenario. Don't dawdle.

Mages and Drakes

Objectives: Defeat Drake leader
Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out
Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur and Angarthing

Guardsmen and Thunderers are your units of choice in this scenario since they have piercing attacks that are quite deadly to drakes. Do not try to sweep the map of all opposition, your mobility disadvantage is too huge for that. Just move to the nest of the drakes with a pack of well seasoned troops, trying to stay in the mountains/hills as much as possible, otherwise the fire drakes could really hurt your dwarves.

Fear

Objectives: Find the villagers then defeat Masked Dwarf leader
Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out
Turns: 30/24/18 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and 1 or 2 Mages and Ratheln (depending on difficulty)

The worst mistake you can make in this scenario is to recall too many troops. Those Ulfserkers look dangerous (and they probably are, if you let them get at one of your Thunderers or Magi), but otherwise your enemy is weak and you will need your gold. Just make sure, the Dwarvish Ulfserkers hit only a Dwarvish Lord or Sentinel, preferably while he's standing on a village, and everything will be fine.

[ Cph at Hard, it's different. The problem at hard is that the enemy recruits lots of units and keeps recruiting all the way through - you will barely finish inside the turn limit. So recruit a decent size army; fight in a solid formation against the first wave of enemies, while using your gryphon rider to take and hold the villages to the north; then push forward once the main body of resistance is broken, even though there will still be a steady stream of reinforcements - watch the clock and don't leave it to chance on the last turn. ]

You get an experienced Mage (or two, on easy) at the start of this scenario, and can recruit more. If all of your Magi die (and you have none available for recall) you will lose the ability to recruit them - don't let that happen. Aim for white mages first, see #Campaign Strategy.

Forbidden Forest

Objectives: Move both Aiglondur and Angarthing to the eastern signpost
Lose if: Aiglondur or Angarthing die or turns run out
Turns: 40/34/28 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8

This is a tough one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them under fog of war. So, once again, your Gryphon Rider (preferably leveled into a Gryphon Master) is a must. Trouble is, Elvish Riders are as fast or faster than he is, and, he won't be able to spot Elvish Rangers or Woses because of their Ambush ability. If I were playing the elves in this scenario, I would take on almost any number of dwarves. Only the stupidity of the AI saves you from a grim defeat. So recall as many units as you can, you need your numbers to make up for your tactical disadvantage.

I've never tried to run in a tight pack to the signpost. It might work, but those elves would swarm you from all sides. Of course you don't have to finish off their leaders, you will have to finish off their entire troops however.

Because of all the ambushing, you only want to have tough units with you that can withstand woses and elves popping out at then from all sides without warning. Recall up to 4 Dwarvish Pathfinders or Explorers that you have available (the blade ranged attack is awesome against woses) and make up to ~7 units with a mix of steelclads near to leveling and dwarf lords. You want only 1 white mage, and recall the gryphon to grab villages. Go for a quick knock-out against the SW enemy (who has only weak units including sorcerors), then park in the wooded hills just east of that keep and fight off the main attack of woses from the SE and elves from the NE. If you park in the wooded hills right beside the road, then some elves will foolishly attack you from the open road tiles, making it easy to kill them.

Then head east to knock off the Elder Wose in the SE, then go for the signpost. Forget the NE enemy and don't bother walking to the center to get the Staff which seems not that useful; splitting your army makes it harder to defend against ambushes. Take care with your gryphon, but most of enemy army will head south (drawn to your leaders) so it should be safe flying around between villages in the NW to keep your income high; it is also useful to have it just at the edge of range to dive in and finish off weakened elves in the road during that first fight.

[ previous suggestion: If you are struggling with this level, take note that you have quite a few turns. You do not need to sprint to the signpost. The enemy leader to the south is poorly funded and recruits weak units. You should be able to handle her forces by getting to the riverbank quickly and digging in (there is some forested hill terrain useful for this). Magic users will have always have a high chance to hit elves in the forest. The leader won't come get you so once you have killed her units you can move on.

When you reach the central region of the map, expect to get ambushed by several Woses. Fighting them off will not be too hard, as Dwarvish Lords and Magi are highly effective in destroying them. Be careful with your Gryphon, as he is susceptible to getting ambushed, trapped and killed by the hiding Woses, Rangers and Scouts/Riders.

In that temple in the center of the map is the Staff of Righteous Flame that will strike down every enemy next to a dying Mage. It might be worth to give it to an inexperienced Mage and do a kamikaze attack with him. He might take out two or more Level 2 units that way. You could also give it to a more experienced unit and save him until the last scenario, when it could be very useful. ]

The Siege of Kal Kartha

Objectives: Defeat Orcish leaders (3)
Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos(allied leader) die or turns run out
Turns: 35/35/35 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing and any surviving Mages from Scenario 8

It is quite easy to grab the patch of hills in front of you, wait for the northern enemies to come to you and chew them up. But you also need to make sure, that you put enough pressure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.

More often than not, the Orcs will ignore you completely and focus all their firepower on your weak ally. If this happens, create three strike teams and rush the enemy leaders (who will be completely unguarded), as your ally will not be able to hold off their collective might for very long.

The Court of Karrag

Objectives: Defeat Karrag
Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die or turns run out
Turns: 12/12/12 (easy/medium/hard)
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln
Other: Neither side can recruit units

Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarvish Lords. Don't let the Lich slip past you (he tries to run NW), as that would slow down killing him - there's a lot of bonus gold to be had here if you can kill him fast. Just ZOC his route for those early turns and then close in for the kill once you've dealt with his henchmen.

The Underlevels

Objectives: Defeat Karrag
Lose if: Aiglondur, Angarthing, or Dulcatulos die
Turns: no limit
Starting units: Aiglondur, Angarthing, Dulcatulos and Ratheln
Other:
- Two alcoves with 150 gold in the first gallery
- 4 caves with friendly prisoners in the north (just before the spiders)
- Teleportation runes
- Secret passage down to the first Lich

Don't start playing this scenario, if you don't have a lot of time to spare. It's not so much of a scenario, it's actually a small campaign in itself. This is even more extreme than the missions in "Under the Burning Suns". As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly. Two White Mages, your loyal Arch Mage and another Red Mage are really useful here. By now, your army should consist of numerous Dwarvish Lords, Sentinels and Dragonguards, along with lower-level units. Recall everything and recruit more with your leftover gold. It's going to be a long brawl, so you need to be prepared.

In short, you will have to fight a gallery full of Masked Dwarves, 4 different Masked Dwarf leaders and their armies, a cavern full of Giant Spiders, 2 Liches and their Undead armies, and finally, once you're done with all that, have a final showdown with Karrag. But there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you wish to complete this mission.

The Gallery

A hall with a line of dwarves on either side in extremely good defensive position. Try to take them out as fast as you can, cycling wounded units back to your healers for, before long, masked dwarves will start to pour into the gallery from the other side. There is a treasure behind each line of defenders, which provides a little extra cash should you need it for more recruits.

The First Enemy

He sits right at the other end of the gallery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough aggression, he should not be a problem. Once you've taken his castle, you will need to split your forces. Split them as evenly as you can. (Did I mention, that two White Mages are a real asset? Each group will need a healer!)

The Fight in the Corridors

Your enemies now are numerous and strong. But you are fighting underground in passages only three hexes wide. This is your advantage. Form defensive lines, let them come to you, and beat them to a pulp once they do. Don't worry if this takes some time, you will have to defeat almost their entire forces, before you can dare to enter the halls at the ends of the corridors. There is no turn limit anyway.

Once you defeat the southern enemy, you will find a locked door. Just leave your troops there, your other group can easily take care of getting the key in the north east corner.

When you have defeated the last enemy in the north, make sure to free the prisoners in the cells near his castle.

The Spiders and the First Lich

Before you move your norther force east to find the key, you should make a decision. There is a Lich on the eastern side of the map. You can enter his cellar from behind the locked door in the south, or through a long windy passage from the north. He's rather weak, but you need to take him out first, if you don't want him attacking your back while you face your real enemy.

The first possibility is to use the transportation runes to get your forces down to the locked door and fight him from there. In that case, go east with only a few well leveled dwarves, Angarthing and a White Mage, for there is quite a number of Spiders defending the key. Once your read the spell, go back to the runes, reunite your forces and take out the Lich in the east.

But if you want to get to the Lich through the back door, you need to take your whole northern force east. Defeat the Spiders, run down that narrow passage until your reach the end of the tunnel. It's just caved in, you can open it by moving a unit there. Before you do, open the locked door and advance with your southern force south east until you meet the undead forces. Be careful, they recruit quite a number of Shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking Ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the Lich's castle and take him out.

Either way, you will have to do some boring running here.

The Second Lich

He sits in a big cavern behind the doors in the south west. Only take him on with your entire army (if you don't want to do another chokepoint fight at the door). He too makes heavy use of shadows, so make sure to form solid lines! His forces are likely to be at a fair distance when you open the door, so, with your entire army, you have a good chance to finish him in only a few turns by rushing in at top speed. If that does not work, safeload and do a chokepoint fight at the door.

Karrag

He's defended by quite a number of Draugs. They can take out a fully healed Dwarvish Lord in a single turn! So make sure, they don't hack Aiglondur to pieces. Dwarvish Lords are your unit of choice nevertheless, since their hammers do heavy damage while they fight off the onslaught. Take out the wounded with your Mages, protecting them once again with Dwarvish Lords. You should be able to get to Karrag before you have to finish off all the Draugs.