NR: Eastern Flank advice?

[Maiklas3000]

For Northern Rebirth: Eastern Flank on nightmare difficulty, do you have any advice?

Here's my situation at turn 23, at the start of my turn:



The battle in the northern mountains is turning in my favor - I just started flanking the enemy there. The battle at the south end of the mountains is in jeopardy but salvagable. The island just south of there has been conquered by my forces but is under renewed threat by a new assault wave. And in the southern islands, my forces are in full retreat. At this time, I have ~500 gold, because my strategy was to maximize Tallin's income, turning over all the drake villages to him and limiting recruits. I could use a few more drakes now, but I am unable to recruit them.

Maybe I'm on the path to victory, but I've already used 23 of 47 turns and not every front is under control, so I'm getting nervous.

[HomerJ]

For Northern Rebirth: Eastern Flank on nightmare difficulty, do you have any advice?

Ah, my fav campaign once again.
Here's what I posted in Campaign Challenges 1.6 / Humans only:
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Eastern Fortress is hard because you have no units that move quickly through the mountains, I found success by an assassination strategy where I recalled what I had and sent most men to hold a defensive line and let the orcs come, while a group of the elves, the ancient lich and some other very tough units together with some footpads sneaked around to the far south, crossed the river and got into the castle when most Orcs had left for the battle in the mountains. Remaining gold for Tallin is vital here because you have to ZOC your way to the leaders and eventually kill them before they can call in reinforcements (in my game usually the troll and the black orc had loads of money but didn't get a chance to recruit till to late).
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Another good idea might be to secure the island with griffons early on.

On a second look at the pic, maybe you have recruited a little heavy on the drakes. How much was your starting gold?

Maybe I'm on the path to victory, but I've already used 23 of 47 turns and not every front is under control, so I'm getting nervous.

I would be really interested in how it turns out, the last time I played through NR completely was back in 1.6 days so I'm not sure about the AI behavior. Back then, the leaders sat in their keeps at the far west of the fortress and one of them didn't recruit at all since the others blocked the keeps. Key feature was to come in before he was able to spend his tons and tons of money.

All in all, I'm not sure if you can actually win this scenario without additional money to get Tallin recruiting fodder units in the fortress.

If you have a savegame, be it beginning of scenario or turn 23 for 1.8 I would be happy to give it a shot myself.


Greetz
HomerJ

[Maiklas3000]

On a second look at the pic, maybe you have recruited a little heavy on the drakes. How much was your starting gold?

Starting gold was 329 for Krash and 479 for Tallin. Krash can only recruit/recall drakes, so I gave all his villages to Tallin while Krash spent all his money and then ran off the battle. I had Tallin recruit/recall only up to the village limit, maximizing income. Tallin can't recruit drakes, so I don't think I have more drakes than I should, unless I should have saved Krash's gold for something. True, maybe someone has to recruit on the enemy's keep, but it can be Tallin.

I only just now fully grasped the strategy of recruiting/recalling on the enemy keep. You can recruit/recall a lot of units around all the leaders and then kill them. It's essentially a cheat to teleport past the enemy ZOC's. I dislike many WINR things, and this is one of them.

Maybe I'm on the path to victory, but I've already used 23 of 47 turns and not every front is under control, so I'm getting nervous.

I would be really interested in how it turns out, the last time I played through NR completely was back in 1.6 days so I'm not sure about the AI behavior. Back then, the leaders sat in their keeps at the far west of the fortress and one of them didn't recruit at all since the others blocked the keeps. Key feature was to come in before he was able to spend his tons and tons of money.

I don't think that's the case under 1.9. There are 13 keeps and 5 leaders, so I don't think any get locked out of a keep.

I'm up to turn 35 of 47 now:



All fronts are under control. The northern mountain battle is a lot more interesting than I expected. Dwarves are plenty tough enough to stand in crooked lines, so I abandoned my normal game plan of nearly perfectly straight battle lines. The Dwarves are advancing surprisingly rapidly. The overall battlefield is a vast partial encirclement. It's the orcs' Stalingrad. Tallin has 382 gold and 19 income. The 5 orc leaders have no gold reserves left but about 40 gold income each. Time is running short. Tallin is on the central island now. Now that the enemy assault has been broken, my forces should swing around from the southern end of the central island and Tallin should either go with them to the southern keep or straight across the water to the closest keep.

Edit: Update... I won with one turn to spare and 165 gold carryover.

[HomerJ]

Great, congrats on this. If "Infested Caves" is my favorite map, this one is under the top 5 as well.

Starting gold was 329 for Krash and 479 for Tallin. Krash can only recruit/recall drakes, so I gave all his villages to Tallin while Krash spent all his money and then ran off the battle. I had Tallin recruit/recall only up to the village limit, maximizing income.

If someone else notices this thread, it is worth a thought to delay recruiting until the first wave of orcs actually makes it past the the little forest patch. Suiciding Magi can slow them down further. Given the number of villages you can generate another couple of units worth money, then jump in with brute force and hack them to pieces.


Greetz
HomerJ