Harrowing Escape on Hardest

[Cantemir]

Hi,

I cant seem to beat this. I was able to beat "A Tale of Two Brothers" and the two battles up to "A Harrowing Escape" on hardest setting - I just saying that I know the tactics and the basic strategies.

Is there a particular strategy for this battle? Do you know people who beat this on hardest?

Thanks!

[Mythological]

To beat this scenario on hard you will need at least 4-5 good level two units ( preferably some white magi ) and ~200 starting gold. The main problem is to have enough gold and good units to withstand the initial attack. There are just too many orcs on hard on this scenario, and with less units you are simply going to get surrounded and overwhelmed, so 100 starting gold is not enough to beat it. Poisoners are also a big problem if you dont have a healer. You can get a free dwarvish steelclad by moving a unit to the cave village in the top-left corner of the map ( the lady outlaw is the best for going to that village ).
Follow the path and recall some of the HI. If you've lost them in the previous scenario, I recommend you to go back and save them. To start with more than 100 gold in The Harrowing Escape on hard you will have to kill at least one of the orc bosses in The Fall ( by killing each of them you get 75 bonus gold ).
The rest is straight forward - move along the path, avoid the mountains, because the orcs can outmaneuver you there, watch for the wolfs and prevent them from sneaking behind you; attack at day and try to kill as many of you during the day, form a good defending position and hold during the night; repeat the process until you kill their initial recruits and move forward when you do. Beware, when you kill one of the orcish leaders, the other one will get a slayer and some assassins as reinforcements, as well as plenty of gold, so be prepared to defend when you kill the first orc leader.
The turns are more than enough so you need not hurry, and if you play it right you should be able to get a good starting bonus for the following scenarios.

[santi]

I did save the 3 HI in the previous scenaria, but did not kill any of the orc leaders. Basically the strategy in harrowing escape was: advance with restraint, take the villages before the abandoned fort, fight there with all your force while the orcs arrive in waves. That's one of the main themes in TROW: fight few enemies at a time. Retreat if you have to and make sure not to pick a fight unless all your force can join in the fight. After beating off the initial waves advance slowly but steadily

[csarmi]

My strategy was simple: recruited/recalled my units, then swept through the map at high speed. I lost a unit or two, but the orcs put up no real fight at all - and I played at the hardest difficulty. I think I needed tospend two turn at the curve killing the units, then it was a "who can walk better to kill the leaders".

I dont have my saves here, I'll check them out later and try to go more into details.

I think I used a few horsemen/knights, several mages, a few xp-d loyalists (HI, spear, bow) and quite a few footpads: they are very good frontline-units.

[joshudson]

On my go through I got an awesome gold bonus by assassinating the lady outlaw on turn 7 (with two horsemen).

[Cantemir]

Hmm, looks like I need to re-start so I can get in better prepared - even though im not in the worst shape: three level 2 units - marksman, lancer, javeliner - and 191 gold. Plus the lady outlaw and the dwarf which I had found

Ill give it one more try and if it doesnt work ill start from beginning

[thespaceinvader]

If i were you, i wouldn't bother with the lancer and javelineer upgrades. In the long run, units which have no further advancement are much less useful than those which have another level to get to.

[Shade]

I did save the 3 HI in the previous scenaria, but did not kill any of the orc leaders. Basically the strategy in harrowing escape was: advance with restraint, take the villages before the abandoned fort, fight there with all your force while the orcs arrive in waves. That's one of the main themes in TROW: fight few enemies at a time. Retreat if you have to and make sure not to pick a fight unless all your force can join in the fight. After beating off the initial waves advance slowly but steadily

Yes. My tips for TRoW are simple.

Tip 1: Superior local force. Always. Without resorting to mass recruting. Just enough to carry the day without heavy losses. That's just 'good form' in Wesnoth in general, but other campaigns that are less strict with gold accounting let you get away with it.

Tip 2: Learn to make a wedge (or Donught) and level up some units that can heal. You don't have Shamans but you do have options, plus it makes it easy to use leadership. If you don't figure this out in the first half of TRoW the second half will kill you. (Say hello to my little Saurian friend.)

Tip 3: Maintain 'good form' until the end of the scenario. TRoW was very much designed to punish you if you say, "It's all mop up now." The enemy's final desperate surge might not be enough to turn the tide, but if you keep letting 'final surges' cut into your raggedly advancing units you will get drowned in poverty and without high level units before the end.

Basically, just enough and not more-- and stay on your toes. You should actually be able to beat it on hard without much scumming. (But some replays.)

[Cantemir]

Thanks all for the tips; I think im getting the hang of it now

I did not know which units advance to level 3 - ill need to look that up in the future .. I had a longbowman and the dwarf advance to level 3, and they were pretty mighty

I did it with 280 gold and 5 level 2 units to recall - plus some nearly leveled units. Now I have many leveled units, but 100 gold. Looks like I shouldnt even bother with Midlands on hard