Siege of Elensefar (aka MYOB Skeletons!) Help is required!

[Clonkinator]

Here's a hint: In any campaign that features undead as enemies (which is almost any) and allows you to get mages, try to get some white mages / mages of light as soon as possible. They will just rip skellies and that other stuff apart, and mages of light even help your other guys to fight the undead as well. Really useful. A paladin can also be worth a lot. (Especially in 1.2.x)

[pauxlo]

Hmm your replay has like half the enemies mine does, but I shall try the all-shaman technique nontheless!

Looks that you're not on "easy" :-)

When you want to play with only shamans, restart in the first level. You'll need some leveled shamans (specially elvish sorceresses) against the undeads.

Paul

[tr0ll]

I always did this scenario by recalling two knights and recruiting about 8 horseman, and storming the island on turn 3 before the orcs get far. They take out the leader and heavy fighters that turn. Then i bring in archers and thieves to finish off the stragglers during the night. Konrad, in the keep by about turn 6, recruits mages and fighters and recalls some mermen to take on the undeads.

The cost of my strategy is horrendous in lost horsemen but i finish with a decent early bonus. I will try Velensk's strategy as an exercise in learning patience

[HaJo]

I always did this scenario by recalling two knights and recruiting about 8 horseman,
and storming the island on turn 3 before the orcs get far.

With one elvish scout, you can take the village east of the city
in turn 2, then capture one village inside the city on turn 3
to activate the thieves. Capture more villages inside with
the thieves, and the orcs pull back to clobber the thieves,
re-take villages etc.
This gives you an opportunity to rush into the city.
Disadvantage is, most of the thieves will be lost...

[santi]

On hard(but that was 1.2), last time I played I probed on 3 fronts(west, as pointed by the thieves, center and east) to keep the orcish forcs scattered and uncoordinated. Eventually I broke through on all 3 fronts
, massacred the orcs and set up a defence of high HP units(mostly Grand knights) at the northern wall of the city, so that skeletons who attacked would be in the water and hence easy target. When it was my turn to attack, the GKs moved aside and fresh troops from behind(like mages) blasted the skeletons. After that it was mop-up till the cave entrance

[Jetrel]

When you want to play with only shamans, restart in the first level. You'll need some leveled shamans (specially elvish sorceresses) against the undeads.

(Caveat Lector - don't try the following strategy against human players)

Not necessarily. Shamans have an odd mix, in that they've got healing, relatively excellent defense, and slowing. And both of their attacks do extra damage to a skeleton. And probably the biggest thing is that they have a ranged attack, and the skellies don't.

When the skeletons get out on open ground, you can just slow them ... to death. Even the skeleton archers; after the initial slow on them, you just club them apart. A single shaman can do as much as 10 damage per turn (possibly more if you have a captain and dextrous/strong shamans, I can't remember the numbers offhand). If your shamans are in groups, they'll heal over half of the rather pitiful damage the skeletons deal back.

It's an easy way to level up, and as was noted, a single sorceress will annihilate skeletons.

[AThousandYoung]

I'm still working on this one. After having problems the first time, I started over.

I'm playing 1.4.7 on Challenging (hardest). I nurtured my Recall list so it would be stronger, and tried to save money as much as possible. Even so I only managed to have 232 at the start, only about 30 more than I had before - despite having over 300 at the end of Bay of Pearls.

Here it is:

Konrad level 2 (starting unit)
Captain (starting unit)
Outlaw
Merman Warrior with Storm Trident
Druid x2
Knight x2
White Mage with Holy Sword
Mage 51/60 exp
and a variety of level 1's, but no Thugs or Footpads (I used Mermaid Initiates for IoD)

Help!

One handy bit of advise would be WHEN I should have taken the center keep. By Turn 10? 15? 20? The only time I really kicked butt on this level, didn't take the castle until Turn 26, and then didn't have time for the Necro.

P.S. I bumped this old thread because I'm not supposed to make any new threads about this.

[Velensk]

best way to deal with skelotons is to have several mages and shamans plus some decent melee units around. Elvish fighters are better at melee than a slowed skeloton and mages roast bone. I'll go back through this campaing on hard to get a replay to post for the stable version.

[Velensk]

Here is a replay of how you could defeat your enemy forces without starting with any leveled anti-undead units or level two healers.

In retrospect I executed this attack somewhat poorly. I probably shouldn't play when I'm still recovering from the flu, however I think that this is still probably sufficent for demonstation.

For what it's worth, I took the path by land rather than by sea because the amount of gold and experiance to be had that way.

[AThousandYoung]

418 Gold . I only have 232.

How much Gold should I be aiming for at the end of each previous Scenario?

[Yogibear]

If i remember correct (and it has been a long while), i think the minimum is about 300. 350 should get you through even with some bad luck and everything above that is quite comfortable.

Take this information with care, however, since it was in the old times with wesnoth 1.0

[AThousandYoung]

Well I went back and checked BoP. I had 364 Gold at the beginning of that.

I recruited 6 Elven Warriors, Recalled a Knight, a Druid, a Horseman and a Elven Fighter with a lot of exp, and a Mage and Elven Shaman with some exp. I had 169 Gold by the time I finished recruiting.

Where did I go wrong? I want Marimaru so I don't want to go to the Peninsula.

EDIT - I am going over the replay and I guess I didn't need so many troops. The Orc's forces aren't that large, and the mermen can take control of the sea by themselves. Was 364 Gold enough to start with on that level? To get 300 on SoE, you need more, because you lose 20% each level for two levels.

If I spent 120 Gold less on BoP I should be ok. Is that doable? I think I over recruited on IoD too. I guess I should go back to BoP. The money from IoD adds to the money from BoP for SoE right?

[csarmi]

You guys all worry too much about gold requirements and not enough levelups etc...
I never really understood all this fuss about the siege map. As far as I can remember, this map, just as almost all of the campaign maps can be done with not-so-level'd troops and 120-150 gold if playing careful. And if you're prepared to lose a higher amount of troops, you can do it with 200+ and virtually no recalls.

[Velensk]

I don't doubt you, but I'd like to see a replay of you beating that scenario on hard only using 150 of your starting gold. Such a replay would be far more informative than mine and probably more entertaining.

[csarmi]

Post a starting save for that scenario with an okay recall list and I'll try it.
I'm not willing to play up to that scenario just to prove a point.