It is that pesky Princess of Wesnoth again!

[tbone]

It seems that like many other people I am stuck on this level on the campaign. I am playing in normal mode. I have tried all of the strategies suggested on other threads. I tried the assassination technique... no luck... I have already gone back and replayed every map on this campaign to get to this level with the troops and gold that I have... I am playing version 1.8.

I have attached a replay that I did. Probably one of the ones that I managed to last the longest in.

I have also attached a save game on turn one of the map, so if any helpful people want to try the map for me and save a replay then that would be helpful...

I guess what I want to know is can I get through this map with enough resources, or do I have to trail back to the start and go through them all again...

Thanks guys.

[shadowblack]

Here's a replay, a save from right before Kalenz finished off Li'sar, and a start-of-scenario save for the next scenario. Two things I want to mention:
1) This is with NO save-loads. If I had bothered loading to fix my mistakes I could have won with NO losses, but I wanted to finish the scenario as quickly as possible
2) Your recall list leaves much to be desired. It is rather short and there are too few level 2 units - most are either level 3 or level 1

I recommend replaying this scenario, but be more careful than I was. No need to lose that Enchantress, or any of the other units. On this difficulty with your resources winning with no losses is possible.

I'll go have a look at your replay now.

[Maiklas3000]

You should state the difficulty level you're playing on, which is medium (as I can see from the save game.) Your starting gold is, holy moly, 318, quite sufficient on medium. Your recall list is rich in level 3's, but it is surprisingly devoid of non-elf horse units, which are the single most important units in this scenario. I had a Grand Knight, (loyal) Paladin, and Knight going into this scenario. You would be wise to emphasize attaining those, both before and during this scenario, for the sake of this scenario and the next. Another thing you are missing is the Storm Trident (from Bay of Pearls.) And the meat of your recalls should be level 2's, like Captains and Heroes, which I think you lack. The pluses and minues average out to a mediocre starting point.

Did you try the strategies in the scenario review thread? There you'll find my strategy of elves-in-the-woods and Faello's strategy of a stand at Elmar's Crossing. I didn't watch your replay, but one thing you need to do in this scenario is to pay attention to income. Recall lots of loyals to start, then level 1's, then level 2's, and snag villages when you can. That means recruiting/recalling some horsemen and mermen.

To keep your loyals alive in this scenario requires intense attention, but this may cause you to "level up" your playing style. Read the thread "Ok, this may be stupid but what if you want to keep units".

[shadowblack]

I watched your replay, and I must say: You were TOO defensive. You:
- stood in the forests and waited for the enemy to attack you
- did not finish wounded enemies allowing them to retreat and heal (or to continue attacking you)
- even at night when the enemy is weakest you played defensively
- barely used Konrad's leadership

[Maiklas3000]

Shadowblack, I was very conservative out of necessity. I tried a couple of times being just a tad more aggressive, moving out of woods to pursue wounded, and this caused me to lose loyals or criticals, which for me is painful since I do not save-reload; I restart. So I was determined to avoid another restart. Also keep in mind that I was going for a total victory rather than leader assassination, so hurrying would not have bought me a super quick victory anyway. True, I could have used more gold going into the next scenario.

About sacrificing Konrad's leadership, that was a conscious and painful decision, but I felt that I needed to stretch my finances by leaving him in the keep longer. He did do an admirable job lending leadership on the plains around the keep to mop up the enemy units that had penetrated there.

Hiding in the woods was sort of an experiment. On my previous pass through this campaign, I did the more standard approach of making a stand at the crossing while swinging forces either around the north or south to knock L'sar out via assassination.

[shadowblack]

To avoid any confusion: My previous post was directed at tbone and was made after I watched the replay from the first post. Sorry I did not make that clear.

And one thing I forgot to mention: in the posted replay tbone sent his three starting units (Delfador, Kalenz and the Elvish Hero) south, triggered the trap, and fought the Duelist and Fencer, which seemed unnecessary - those three units would be a lot more useful on the front lines.

[Faello]

It seems that like many other people I am stuck on this level on the campaign. I am playing in normal mode. I have tried all of the strategies suggested on other threads. I tried the assassination technique... no luck... I have already gone back and replayed every map on this campaign to get to this level with the troops and gold that I have... I am playing version 1.8.

I've passed this scenario 2 days ago on 1.9.6 with no save/loading policy on Challenging difficulty level and I'd not say that it's hard. I'd suggest you to watch the replay and read the feedback I've posted here: CLICK!

Generally speaking, players should avoid assasination techniques & some other tricks, because:
1)it usually isn't necessary
2)it's a waste of a lot of xp points that your units need in order to get more powerful => it's much easier to deal with the next scenarios with a very experienced units of different kind, because it opens more tactical possibilities in the next scenarios = allows you to win with better results

Advice regarding this particular scenario:
1)try to keep loyalists on the river and force them to attack via the river (you have to hold them at location called Elmar's Crossing in order to do that)
2)try to capture as many villages as you can before the combat will begin and try to hold them (the more villages you get, the more units you can recruit and the less units you will face)
3)use slow to diminish the power of lvl2 enemy units
4)invest in elven archers heavily if you don't have a decent amount of higher level units to deal considerable amount of the damage to the AI

Advices regarding playing ANY campaigns:
1)if you're attacking, your attack should do two things:
- eliminate or paralyze the effectiveness of most dangerous enemy units (perfect attack = attack after which opponent loses possibility to counter-attack efficiently)
- after your attack your important units should be safe
2)use cannon fodder (in HttT elvish fighters) to protect your key units and give some easy targets to the AI (AI loves easy targets)
3)NEVER attack enemy units just to deal some damage if you cannot kill them while you can get hurt in progress.
4)ALT + S to check how much gold enemy has and how much fixed income enemy has (often AI leaders have high income, even with a couple of villages under their control - in Princess of Wesnoth, AI has ok fixed income, thus playing it totally defensively is a bad idea)