LOW - The Human Alliance - 1.7.6

[monochromatic]

With 3 new orc warlords coming every some 5 turns with like 400 gold per orc, how would you attempt this scenario? What strategy would you use?

What I start with:
Medium difficulty
946 gold
Kalenz, lvl 3 champion

~~~Heroes~~~
Landar, lvl 3 sharpshooter (so he is easier to kill later on )
Cleodil, lvl 3 shyde
Olurf, lvl 3 lord

~~~Loyals~~~
1 lvl 3 marshal
1 lvl 3 champion
1 lvl 3 avenger
1 lvl 2 rider

~~~Recall~~~
~elves~
2 sylphs
2 shydes
1 enchantress
2 marksmans
1 ranger
1 druid
1 sorceress
3 riders
1 hero
1 captain
and a horde of lvl 1s
~dwarves~
3 pathfinders
1 steelclad
4 berserkers (i don't how i got so many, I don't really use ulfserkers)
and a horde of lvl 1s

~~~What I tried~~~
Mostly staying put, fighting the northern troops like the humans instructed - the humans were swarmed, and it looked bad
Rushing a couple of troops to help the humans and mostly fight the north orcs - my units were slaughtered and the humans were still swarmed
Sending all the troops with Kalenz south and forget the northern orcs and trolls - I was surrounded about turn 7 and...Landar died somewhere

It's probably really feasible, and I am just missing something, but major losses start coming in around turn 4 for the humans (they drop from like 20 units to 6!), and turn 8 for me, when the second night comes and I lose my loyals and higher-level units. How do you minimize losses in this kind of scenario? In the earlier versions, it was really easy: the humans really fought off the orcs and I could quickly defeat both north leaders and all finish the scenario by turn 10. I don't think the other earlier forum threads help at all. Oh, and there were elvish reinforcements then too....

[Theron]

I started "The Human Alliance" (1.7.6, medium difficulty) with 596 gold.
I never played this scenario before.

My play went well with this strategy:
I divided my first recruits/recalls evenly between NW and NE.
Then I sent one more shyde NW and one NE and all other units W and then S to distract the orcs.
Although I expected most of my third force to be lost they (and the elvish reinforcement) were really successful.
When I was surprised by the orcish reinforcement I spent the remaining gold to reinforce the northwestern front.

I'm using more units of the elvish shaman line than you. (slowing, healing and flying is invaluable)

I'm attaching my replay. Unfortunately it gets corrupt after turn 5 (the cause may be the elvish reinforcement which arrives on turn 6).
But you'll get to see my first moves.
And then there is a save game on turn 10 (when I paused the game).

In the end I lost 13 units:
Level 4: 1 Elvish Sylph
Level 3: 1 Elvish Shyde
Level 2: 1 Dwarvish Pathfinder, 2 Elvish Rider, 1 Elvish Druid, 3 Elvish Sorceress
Level 1: 1 Elvish Archer, 1 Elvish Fighter, 2 Elvish Shamans
It may have been fewer losses if I had played more defensively the last turns.

[santi]

The new orcish reinforcement thing is new and a big improvement over the original design. Before the strategy was to finish off fast the northernmost orcs, contain and then finish the trolls, distract the orcish onslaught from heading to the human general and also give humans some support as well as kill any stray trolls headed that way(together with grabbing villages). Now one should remember that the objective is not to kill all enemies, but to hold out until relief comes. So one should concentrate on giving more support to the humans and hold, rather than defeat all enemies.

[santi]

BTW, here's my replay
Wish I had some more time to finish off the orcs....

[quantile]

This is probably the most challenging scenario in any of the mainline campaigns, but it is possible to win. My strategy relied almost entirely on finding good terrain to hold the enemy at bay and prevent them from surrounding you, since otherwise sheer numbers will overwhelm you.

Note the chokepoints in the northern parts of the battlefield - water surrounded by forests. These are excellent places to defend, as the water will limit the orcs' mobility, concealment, and numbers, while the adjacent forest hexes give your units 60% to 70% concealment. A strong unit like an Elvish Champion can be devastating in this situation.

Send strong fighter units with a shyde to the northwestern and northeastern chokepoints. There are several - start as close as possible to the enemy keeps. Rotate the units in front to avoid any taking too much damage, and try to position them so that the shyde is healing them each turn. The shyde generally won't attack, though the occasional strategic slowing attack can be very useful in hindering the enemy's attempts to break through. If you're damaged and have no fresh units, don't be afraid to give ground - your elvish units have much better mobility in the forested terrain than the orcs do, and can easily enact a retreat to another chokepoint further back.

You probably won't be able to beat the northern orcs, and in fact, the sudden arrival of orcish reinforcements will throw a huge monkey wrench into your plans if you're too close to their keep (hey, the edge of the map suddenly isn't an edge anymore!) Just hold them off. You can beat the trolls, but you realistically only have about 10 turns to fight them.

While this is going on, send the bulk of your force southeast. This is an open plain and concealment options are really empty here - if you go against the orcs on that terrain, your units will be slaughtered. Find what defensible terrain you do have - first the villages and eventually the human castle itself will become your best points of defense. Keep your units tightly together while crossing, so they can't be easily surrounded. Head toward the castle - your objective isn't to defeat all of the warlords, there are far too many.

The natural endgame of this scenario is a siege of the human castle. Even sending a harrying force to keep the orcs to the south busy, there are still far too many to fight off, and around turns 8-10 you'll want to turn tail and start running everyone to the castle to prevent the human leader from being killed (which is game over, so your units can't sit pretty in the forests while the humans are destroyed). Most of your force should reach the castle in advance of the orcs. As with the northern defense, keep your strongest units at the perimeter of the castle and rotate them when they start to get damaged. Dwarves are great at this, because they have 60% concealment on the castle hex, very high HP, strong attacks, and strong resistance to physical weapons. Put shydes in the middle to heal them and to prevent poison from becoming a problem. Note that the village adjacent to the castle can be part of your perimeter.

I did take some losses using this strategy, but they were minimal. The siege occupied only the last 5 turns, and at most 3 units could attack any one of mine at pretty much all times despite the vastly superior numbers of the orcs.

Against the saurians in the previous scenario, woses were excellent units to soak up their pierce attacks, and their ambush ability meant that the enemy never saw them coming (also, summoning a bunch of them also gave me an "until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane" moment of glee). I wouldn't recommend them here due to the fire and blade attacks of the orcs.

[Alfian_Immortal]

I had failed many times playing this scenario. So, I created new strategy. I decided to take all my units away from my keep in the first turn and brought them to the human's castle because I thought that it was safer. At last, I did it to the final turn and the human reinforcement came to help. However, I lost many units including level 3 and level 2