Affably Evil Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for Affably Evil, by Dugi. It was created using BfW 1.14.15, AE 1.0.0h and Legend of the Invincibles (LotI) 3.2.7. This walkthrough was created by White Haired Uncle (WHU). I am assuming the reader is familiar with LotI's unique characteristics, if not it is highly recommended to at least play the tutorial at the beginning of LotI Part I. Note that AE varies slightly from LotI in that only certain units can pick up items (even gems) and there are no recalls other than the special units that are automatically recalled.

Incarcerate

[WHU] This one is quite hard. There also seems to be a lot of luck involved in the gear you are provided with initially. The enemy has a lot more income than you do, leading to a steady stream of attackers with really no time to heal. And your leaders pretty much suck. The idea here is to incarcerate as many of the enemy as possible. When an enemy unit, anywhere on the map, has 4 or less HP, you can right click on it and incarcerate it, eliminating the enemy unit and giving you 10 gold. I'm sure the idea is that this will make up for your disadvantages, but in practice it really doesn't. You'll see a lot of enemies with 5, 6, or 7 HP, but not a lot that you can actually incarcerate. Still, you should try to incarcerate, which often means choosing to attack an enemy with a unit/attack that won't quite kill if it gets N hits. And always scan the battlefield completely.

[WHU] The only way I've found to win this scenario is to give the swordsman (Judas, the only really worthwhile unit at this point) all the gear I can, then send him after the southern leader along with the white mage (Antipater) and some support/fodder. Meanwhile, Krux recruits a steady stream of units to protect the allied leader (not an objective, but you need him for his income to recruit). Killing the southern leader, who has a high income, will remove much of the pressure in the center of the map from his constant recruiting, turning the tide just enough. At this point, Judas and Antipater probably need to make a hasty retreat from the enemies coming in from the west. Assault the central leader, probably using his castle to recruit another wave of bodies (remember, the leader in the west is still recruiting too), and then charge west. The river seems useful, but you don't have the turns to spend much time there, better to charge right past his advancing army and go for the kill.

Libreborough

[WHU] You will be offered an ally. Take it, of course, allies are the only units that really count in this campaign. Check out the obelisk and learn how it works. Gear up your units as best you can. If/when you can, I like at least one Wretched Defiler melee weapon to score some fodder that the AI seems obsessed with. Head northeast, encounter a few bandits, and proceed to Menacing Hills.

[WHU] Expect in this scenario, or those to come shortly, to have to retreat to the obelisk regularly to escape and heal, then come back again until you build up some experience.

Menacing Hills

[WHU] Slowly work your way to the northeast corner. As you progress, you'll trigger small packs of bandits, so keep your army together. There's no turn limit, so there's no reason to use all of your movement points in a turn, save some in case you want to retreat/regroup.

Strych

[WHU] Visit the traders and buy some items if you like. Enter the building to trigger a talk with the parents. Choose your legacy. Exit the map to the south.

Southern Estates

[WHU] Go south to make contact with the waypoint (always contact the waypoint the first time you visit a map). Move west, triggering some enemies. Retreat to the villages and defeat the enemies. Follow the path through the swamp. At night, walking dead will appear, so watch the clock and make sure you keep a good formation on advantageous terrain.

Marilyn

[WHU] Kinda tricky, as it's easy to get lured into the obvious fight at the river initially. Send a couple cavalrymen, one clockwise, one counterclockwise, around the map, collecting villages. Defend against the first wave. When the cavalryman in the east crosses the river, it will trigger a talk with Marilyn. Pull all your units back north until Krux has an idea.

[WHU] Marilyn has a lot of income, and can pretty easily overwhelm you. Send a handful of cavalrymen counterclockwise to steal his villages, assist the undead, and just generally distract him. This will also give you more visibility to use incarcerate. Fight off the second wave, recruit heavily, and head down to the (new) castle at the river. A fair fight here is a losing one, so send those cavalrymen in on a suicide mission, taking the villages near his castle so his forces will be distracted and you can make it across the river. Once you get across the river, you may need to go around his forces instead of through.

Boonies

[WHU] Use the waypoint to jump back to Strych. While there, talk with the parents, then head north to Lorendas' Forest.

Dead Menace

[WHU] You're going to be fighting against the turn limit here. Send Krux and some recruits that fight well against undead (archers for walkers, infantry for skeletons) up the path immediately. Use the rest of your troops to dispatch the first enemy leader. When you get to the river, look for a petrified leader and move a unit to her. Here you need to split your forces. There is an enemy leader to the north, generally Krux can charge in and take him out, especially if he leaves his keep, with a few supporting/distracting units. The rest of the army needs to push west to get to the leader in the cave. That's going to take a good strategy that involves multiple units making holes for each other to push through, or he'll just recruit until the turn limit runs out.

Lorendas' Forest

[WHU] Head northeast. Now.

Ogira

[WHU] Talk to everyone in town. Then head northeast to Dead End Trail.

Dead End Trail

[WHU] Follow the path, trigger enemies, you know the drill. Your goal is simply at the end of the trail. If you leave someone behind to allow for a quick retreat, be aware that they will be swarmed by bats. This is one situation where that melee Wretched Defiler is awesome.

Emants

[WHU] Go north, fight some trolls. Go north, fight some more trolls. Enter the city and visit the elf embassy twice.

Keepers of Serenity

[WHU] Kind hard. Pack after pack of monsters, and your tiny little force has to keep anything from touching Fowleri. It's tempting to just kill everything, but you'll quickly find you don't have the time before another group shows up too far away to get to in time. Use zone of control, and hopefully some plague weapons to spawn blockers/distractions (another reason I like Wretched Defiler, it spawns Soulless which are level 1 so they actually have a zone of control).

Dark Days Upon Us

[WHU] North to the edge of the mountains, then follow the river on the south side to the exit. Use Krux and Acantha to screen orcs.

Krux the Saviour

[WHU] Rush southeast with Krux to the first keep, then fight your way back to where you started. Again, plague is useful. Not too fast, let your allies help.

The Unforgivable Abomination

[WHU] Tricky. You're going to stab the orcs in the back, so you want to sacrifice as many as possible. But you can't just put them in the moat and let the elves do all the work. So attack, stupidly, like assassins attacking with melee against elf fighters, from the water. I like to try to get almost all of the orc assassins/slayers killed since there are no villages inside the city. Leave a couple assassins for the attack on Fowleri (she'll take them out in retaliation, but they'll do some damage and poison her in the process). Keep the humans out of her sight, but close enough and in proper position that they can charge in at the right moment.

[WHU] This one can be a little frustrating. The elvish forces are pretty weak. Even if you do everything wrong, all it takes is a little (good/bad?) luck and you'll end up killing them too quickly.

Amaranth

[WHU] You can move slowly through the forest to the east, triggering bands of enemies. They move slowly, a quick unit such as Lucretia can simply run around them.

Gruzgob's Path/Ogira/Strych

[WHU] Follow the path, fight a few small packs of orcs, twice using a river. When you get to Ogira, visit the trader and then use the waypoint to Strych, where you must choose to talk about the elves.

Ogira

[WHU] Do not skip through the scenario introduction, unless you've already seen this one. Kill all the undead. Waypoint is broke. Go to Lorendas' Forest.

Lorendas' Forest

[WHU] Again, the waypoint is broken (probably intentionally?). Spirits will arrive at night and disappear during the day. Get defensive, and send Lucretia south along the east side of the map.

Strych

[WHU] Fight the undead while Krux runs to his mommy.

The Reckoning

[WHU] Explore, taking all villages until you get to the next castle. Stop there and wait for the rest of your units to finish exploring before going any farther. Follow the paths.

The Escape

[WHU] Lethalia is slow, so use Krux to clear a path for her, making sure she never has to stop. Even if they don't make it to the office to report you, you can't leave any witnesses behind.