TheHammerOfThursagan

The Hammer of Thursagan

Scenario 1 – At The East Gate

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. Preserve the Gryphon Rider, 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.

Scenario 2 – Reclaiming The Past

Plot only. Gain best unit ever invented. Your new companion has two magic, impact attacks, one of these slows, he’s very fast, and HE CAN LEAD PEOPLE HIS OWN LEVEL. He later becomes able to cure, and then heal +4. Angarthing makes fighting very much easier.

Scenario 3 - Strange Allies

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 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.

Scenario 4 - Troll Bridge

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. After the first onslaught, the remaining either retreat, or throw themselves at your weakest unit. Try and kill the unit with a weaker unit, he's a great chance for some experience. Also, after you kill the leader, you find that he was sitting on a pile of 200 gold.

Scenario 5 - Invaders

When you flag your first vilage, you will discover, that there is quite a number of outlaws in hiding. 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 Ork, 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 the map in which all the villages you flag are bandit-free...

Scenario 6 - High Pass

Recalling your gryphon rider is a must on this scenario, he will be your eye. Dwarves just can't see very far in the snow. The rest is pretty straight forward, just make sure you meet the mage hiding in a vilage near the center of the pass.

Scenario 7 - Mages and Drakes

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.

Scenario 8 - Fear

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

You get an experienced mage at the start of this scenario. Level him to a white mage, you'll be facing undead before long and you'll need his healing abilities. It really pays to educate a second white mage, by the way, even better if he's quick.

Scenario 9 - Forbidden Forest

This is a tough one. You are fighting elves. You are fighting them in a forest. And you are fighting them in a fog. So, once again, your gryphon rider is a must. Trouble is: Elvish Riders are faster than he is, and he won't be able to spot Rangers or Woses. 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.

In that temple in the center is the staff of righteous flame that will strike down every enemy next to the dying mage. It might be worth to give it to an unexperienced mage and do a kamikaze attack with him. He might take out two level two units that way.

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 hilly forest terrain). Magic users will have a good 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.

Scenario 10 - The Siege of Kal Kartha

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 presure on the central enemy. If left alone, he gangs up with the southern one and you may be too late to rescue your ally.

Scenario 11 - The Court of Karrag

Almost story only. Once again, those Berserkers are your most dangerous opponents, so take them out with your Dwarfish Lords.

Scenario 12 - The Underlevels

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. This is even more extreme than in "Under the burning Suns". As this is the last fighting scenario, you can recall shamelessly. Two white mages, your loyal Archmage and another red mage are really usefull.

The galery

A hall with a line of dwarfes 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 galery 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 galery, again in a good defensive position. But with enough agression, 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 wory 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 posibility is to use the transportation rhunes 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 dwarfes, 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 rhunes, 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 tunel. 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 carefull, they recruit quite a number of shadows, nasty skirmishing, nightstalking ghosts. Once the battle is raging you can open the backdoor to the lichs 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 level 3 Draugs. They can take out a fully healed Dwarfish Lord in a single turn! So make sure, they don't hack Aiglondur to pieces. Dwarfish 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 Dwarfish Lords. You should be able to get to Karrag before you have to finish off all the Draugs.

Scenario 13 - Epilogue

Just story here.