Heir to the Throne WAS: Siege of Elsenfar

[RISCOSnoth]

I'm having real difficulty with this level:

- the main city takes so long to take that the undead are at best just one move away from the bridges

- most of my forces then get bogged down on the north gate repelling the undead

- even when I get a couple of units near to the gate of the northern mountains either the warlord doesn't appear or if he does then there aren't enough units to destroy him. If he doesn't appear then trekking into the mountains would take far too many turns.

I'm trying to go back a few levels to pick up some units with more experience but apart from that what can I do?

[Anonymissimus]

do not enter the city isle until the undead's initial attack wave is over
just stay at the southern coast and/or at the forest edge and let the enemy move into your attack range...and into the water

put effort into educating mages, starting in the first scenario where you can recruit them (isle of alduin)
the last time on medium i had Konrad at lev 3, a mermaid pristess (Oceania), 2 merman warrior (one with storm trident), an elvish captain, 2 knights (one Haldiel), Moremirmu, another white mage, an elvish ranger and a red mage (Elrian), the rest lev 1s, 24 totally, at turn 10
almost 400 gold at the beginning, completely used up

recruit A LOT (1/2 of the army) of cannon fodder (elvish fighters) in this scenario, otherwise you'll lose important units,these lev 2 grunts are too dangerous
enter the isle between turn 10 and 20, and then make haste to the cave
i could defeat the necromancer only once outside his cave, all the other times only inside...how does one lure him outside ? but still never ran out of turns
if you kill him inside, trigger the appearance of his extra skeletons and let them move out of the cave

[kusut]

I also had the difficulty on hard.

I think its clear. I dont have much gold, and not enough lvl 2 units. Im planning to redo the bay of pearls. Can you used the scenario after the bay to train lvl 1 units? Or just use your first string?

[Anonymissimus]

i played muff malal's peninsula only once because i always want to have Moremirmu...^^
but it's an easy "army building" scenario as far as i can remember

not all of my list above was at lev 2 at the start, the second white mage for example, and Konrad lev 2...the orcish warriors give great experience

[kusut]

really?

well I only had 133 gold, lvl 3 Konrad, a marshall, and few almost-lvl-3 units. With that amount of gold, its no wonder i lost.

Whats the difference in difficulties? better AI? less turns(I hate this)? or they just have more golds/units?

[RISCOSnoth]

The problem i have with educating units is to educate they have to be put more often than not it seems into harm's way. Any tips for protecting them? Also, the level 2 elf seems very poor.

[RISCOSnoth]

Just to say the advice about waiting for the first wave to be over was excellent. I don't know why it works doing it that way but i've finally managed to finish it.

Would be useful to know why especially as the Princess of Wesnoth level seems to be another very hard one but thanks a lot.

[HomerJ]

Did anyone try to assassinate the orc leader with a lancer? I want to try that next time, because I found that the leader is leaving his keep sometime very early on.

Greetz
HomerJ

[Anonymissimus]

place the unit that is important or that you want to train on a hex next to the attacked unit, that doesn't have any other enemy units on its neighbour hexes (this would be so easier to describe if replays worked...)
at the end of your turn, the enemy shouldn't be able to reach the unit because of the zone of controls of your less important units between them, and the attacked one is dead...

that elvish captain is basically for leadership, like Konrad
move them 1 hex by 1 hex along the line of attacking level 1s...

waiting for the enemy to attack is a useful strategy at the start of most scenarios...just take a defensive position and let the ai come
it works because you have your forces together in one group, and have good terrain while the enemy has bad defense

princess of wesnoth is indeed similar to siege of elensefar, you shouldn't move over the river until you've defeated the reinforcements she gets at turn 10, and the fencer from the southwestern mine
what i'd like to know is whether it's better to retreat at day (and lose villages), or to hold the line at the river/forests (and lose units)...couldn't figure it out so far

as for the quick/run/assassination strategies...i tend not to choose them except I'd really need the money in the next scenario
it is common to assassinate Li'sar in the princess of wesnoth scenario, but you can get a lot of experience here, too

[RISCOSnoth]

Anon - thanks for that.

Currently on "valley of death" - when it says survice for 2 days does it mean over 2 days? I've held out for that long i'm sure.

I'm thinking I should just send two horsemen out to collect the potions and keep the rest of the units in the keep. previously I've sent out a few level 2 units into the forest on the right hand side to take on the undead but haven't been strong enough to save the 3 main characters.

[Anonymissimus]

on easy, staying in the castle in the midth works for me
on medium, with 300 gold (minimum) i throw the complete army against either the northern or the southern lich and defeat them "in detail", while the other two enemies cannot yet reach me
it is well discribed in the walkthrough

[LemonTea]

I played through Heir to the Throne on Hard.

On the Siege of Elsenfar:

I had to go back to Bay of Pearls and Muff Mal's Peninsula cos I didn't have enough gold. (First time on Bay of Pearls I recruited way more units than necessary). Then I had... hmm... I think around 250 gold on the Siege of Elsenfar and recalled all lvl 2 - 3 units, and a few lvl 1s. Swarm the orcish leader (but don't put too much danger to your units) and kill him quick, before the undead reach the bridge. Try to finish off the orcs before the undead onslaught arrives, since the orcish troops are lvl 2 and undead only lvl 1. For me there were still 2 orcs left when the undead swarmed at me. I fought a retreating battle (while keeping the units in lined formation) while wearing their numbers down. (Konrad on Elsenfar keep recruiting a fodder before moving back can buy an extra turn healing as most undead is stopped by the fodder unit). Speaking of healers, at this point I had a shyde, a white mage and a paladin healing wounded troops and each other. Once the undead swarm is gone, the undead only come at you one unit at a time in a thin trickle. When at the undead leader, bottleneck the south entrance (but don't move adjacent to the entrance as this triggers a revenant, a deathblade, and money for the leader with which to pwn you). Move a few units to the west entrance and rush the leader from there.

On Valley of Death:

2 days = 12 turns. Fill your keep with units, then scram and move for the northwest enemy. By the time it's dead, you should have some wraiths and chocobones from the other two enemies harassing your rear. Move Konrad into the NW keep and recruit a few fodder, then retreat your important units into the NW mountains and hold on for the remaining few turns.

EDIT: oh when I was on the Princess of Wesnoth, my army was engaged in attrition with the Wesnothians just NE of the river, and my military situation could be summed up in one, single, rude word. But as luck would have it, I had my paladin on the far east, and I had it charge at Li'sar. And Li'sar's HP just SO HAPPEN to equal the dmg of one paladin charge attack. Win. (Back when i did this on easy, it was the same, except I wasn't screwed and I used a grand knight to pwn Li'sar in one hit).

[RISCOSnoth]

Didn't know about the walkthrough. Currently on the river crossing. Lost some good level 2 and even 3 units on Valley of Death
Delfador has progressed a level however as have the other two!

[HomerJ]

Didn't know about the walkthrough. Currently on the river crossing. Lost some good level 2 and even 3 units on Valley of Death
Delfador has progressed a level however as have the other two!

You mean he did AMLA... don't waste xp on him, lvl 5 he starts and lvl 5 he finishes no matter what.


Greetz
HomerJ

[Anonymissimus]

it's still a good idea to have 64 hp or more instead of 55...by the time you enter the caves delfador will have had some AMLAS anyway because he's just likely to get kills because of his high damage attack

Risco: you'd better replay that scenario until you loose at maximum 1 non-level one unit...