Heir to the Throne, scenarios 7 through 10

[oaq]

No new strategies or tips have been posted during the past week, so here are some:

In Heir to the Throne, hard difficulty, scenario 7, "Crossroads":

Spoiler:

The trouble with this scenario is that it precedes scenario 8, "The Princess of Wesnoth," which precedes scenario 9, "The Valley of Death." At hard difficulty, you shall want to bring plenty of gold to start "Princess," so you should think ahead.

The best way I know to bring plenty of gold to "Princess" is to finish "Crossroads" very early, on turn 7, at dawn.

This is risky but not extremely hard. The odds seem to favor you if you try it. The strategy is to recall Haldiel and Simyr, to recruit 10 more horsemen during turns 1 and 2, and to run east so fast that few of the southern foes can catch up with you. Use the 10 horsemen to kill archers, but otherwise use them to screen Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Haldiel and Simyr. You'll probably lose most or all of the 10 horsemen, but that's all right if it lets you reach your goal in time.

The best path for Konrad, Delfador, Kalenz, Haldiel and Simyr probably leads northward of the small, eastern range of hills. However, because every hex in the small range lies next to open territory, this small range is not infested with hidden goblins as other hills are. Therefore, you can go through or south of the small range if you need to. Move fast, in any event.

Delfador can probably destroy an eastern troll or two. Maybe Kalenz can destroy one, as well. This helps, but don't let Kalenz get bogged down. Speed is the key. (If you have used Kalenz to free one loyal unit during turn 1 or turn 2, and then have used the one loyal unit to free the other loyal unit, then Delfador will be out ahead of Kalenz, so Delfador may have one spare turn available to pause to destroy one troll. Kalenz will not have a spare turn but can only destroy units while running.)

Do not slow down to avoid taking a little daytime damage from wolves. Use horsemen to screen if you can, but keep moving.

The new, loyal fighter and archer are too weak to survive the sprint, so retreat them alone the other way, into the northwest corner. They can survive there until dawn.

In Heir to the Throne, hard difficulty, scenario 8, "The Princess of Wesnoth":

Spoiler:

Ruthlessly kill what you can in the river during turns 5 and 6 (night), and maybe turn 7 (dawn), but do not defend the river line during full daylight on turns 8 and 9. Li'sar's forces just inflict too much damage during those turns; you'll lose loyal units.

Seize and hold villages. Try not to field more nonloyal units than the villages can support without penalty (but however see the update below). Recruit expendable units through about turn 8, after which you should probably have enough to finish the scenario.

Do not spring Li'sar's trap early. Rather, wait until turn 12 or so, after Li'sar's army is broken. The trap is sprung if you enter hex (20,23) or any hex northeast, directly north, or directly east of (20,23) -- basically the northeastern quadrant of the map.

The arcane damage type is not very useful in this scenario, so do not recall sorceresses and other such nonloyal units. Even the fire damage type is of limited use. You want to deal mostly plain pierce (against cavalry) and blade (against longbowmen) damage, rather. That's what hurts this foe. Fortunately, expendable units that deal pierce and blade damage are cheaply available and, as a bonus, they're elves who can shelter in woods.

You may wish to float as many as two loyal mermen, especially if one has the storm trident. However, float only quick ones. Slower ones don't really help. (After numerous trials, incidentally, I believe that it is best to have given the storm trident to Kaba, who is quick. That way, you retain the option of promoting Kaba to hoplite. Slower hoplites than Kaba are just too slow.)

One or (maybe) even two scouts are worth having. These can seize villages on the flanks.

UPDATE

Thinking about what @kjn wrote, I agree with him: recall only one merman. You would want two mermen to seize villages while bringing another merman up the river; but the merman arrives too late and the river is too narrow for the second merman to be of much use.

Though I have also mentioned the idea of recruiting a second scout, to play with the one scout is probably best.

Because "Princess" is a long scenario, you want to use loyal units and expendable units. Nonloyals above level 1 would probably cost too much to support.

And speaking of support: I wrote above that one should "try not to field more nonloyal units than the villages can support without penalty." This is true in a sense, as it is in most long scenarios. However, there is a countervailing consideration. If the scenario automatically starts you with a level-2 nonloyal (a hero or the like), then he number of level-1 nonloyals one can support without penalty during the early-to-midgame period is about 10. That may not be enough to screen your loyal units. How many? I'd say, about 13: five archers (try to get these in the field early: they're useful against cavalry); five warriors (especially useful later in the open terrain east of the river); two shamans (shamans are less useful in this scenario than in others, but sometimes you still need to slow a foe); and one scout.

Of course, that's a large number of units, and it will cost you a lot of gold -- which is why you need to have brought lots of gold forward from the preceding scenario.

In Heir to the Throne, hard difficulty, scenario 9, "The Valley of Death":

Spoiler:

Send a grand knight up the western edge and a grand knight southeast. If the grand knight is not strong, then send two or so footpads with him, because only a strong grand knight can destroy a lich with a single blow. Destroy the two liches during the second day.

If you have a knight that is almost a grand knight, this is even better.

Send your main forces southwest with best speed to destroy the third lich. Strike hard and fast, making maximum use of scarce daylight. With spare gold, you can leave behind a castleful of thieves with one or two shamans in the middle. These thieves will draw and occupy many undead long enough for you to destroy all three liches.

I don't know whether it helps, but I have sent a scout northeast to be available to lend aid later where needed. If this does not help, at least it does not much hurt.

Other than for the two knights (which can get the holy water; did I mention that? but you already knew) and maybe the scout, pay attention to damage types. You don't want to send a marksman or sharpshooter against undead. Sorceresses and enchantresses on the other hand are good, and red mages of various levels are almost as good.

My strategy for scenario 9 is not original, by the way. It has been published in this forum before. Regrettably, it depends on some luck, because the knights shall have to hit their targets; but I do not know a likelier strategy.

UPDATE

Foes can cause trouble by fielding a large number of chocobones. Sometimes foes do this. I don't really have a good answer for it if they do, other than to hope that few of the chocobones happen to score double hits. Maybe you should abandon the keep and instead bring a trailing screen of thieves (backed by a shaman or two) southwestward? But even that may not help much.

If, during the last scenario, "Princess," you have followed the alternate suggestion to recruit as many as 13 nonloyal units, then you will arrive at this scenario with less gold than otherwise. This is probably all right, but in this case, you may not be able to afford to leave any decoys behind in the keep area.

Regardless, even following the suggested operational plan, you are probably going to need some luck to triumph in "The Valley of Death."

In Heir to the Throne, hard difficulty, scenario 10, "Gryphon Mountain":

Spoiler:

Recruit four archers during the first turn, then recruit and/or recall four scouts during the second turn (if you have a rider, recall him and recruit three scouts). Send all these as fast as possible to secure the gryphon eggs, and hope for good luck. Expect to lose most or all of these eight units, but the eight will deal some damage before they die, so it's a reasonable trade for the eggs.

[kjn]

Interesting. I've followed similar patterns for several of my games.

(8 Princess) I've found a single merman to be sufficient if he has the Storm Trident, but he will mainly be useful to grab a few villages and help against the trap. But yes, getting the Storm Trident to Kaba is very helpful.

(9 Valley) Interesting, I've mainly gone straight east. I've also found that regular knights or even a horseman can take on the liches using the holy water, if they get help from a Silver Mage. Of course, that usually means you'll have to grab the villages close to the liches and let them have the first strike, but they're survivable in the day.

One thing I found when going up against the Walking Corpses was that Kalenz is quite vulnerable to them - he is strong enough to kill them, but not before they get in a hit or two on him, and he ends up being killed with a stack of ten or more Walking Corpses before him.

(10 Gryphon) I've found sylphs and shydes to be invaluable in this one. The terrain in this scenario is just awful to handle.

[oaq]

(10 Gryphon) I've found sylphs and shydes to be invaluable in this one. The terrain in this scenario is just awful to handle.

Three questions, please:

1. At hard difficulty, can one get sylphs and shydes before (10 Gryphon)? I'd like to try that. How should I go about it?
2. I had been feeding experience to Elrian, trying to build him up to level 4, because he is loyal. Should that experience instead have been going to enchantresses and druids?
3. Also, since I have Moremirmu, I hadn't much been using druids before (10 Gryphon). Has this been this a mistake?

[kjn]

(Gryphon.1) Shydes, definitely. When checking my last replay, I had two shydes (one intelligent) and one enchantress (likely to have been a sylph if intelligent; I lost one sorceress in the Valley).

Assuming the first one or two shamans become sorceresses, I try to develop a (preferably quick) druid at the Isle of Anduin and Bay of Pearls. A quick druid can help the mermen a lot once your land force has reached the corals, where the druid splits off. Then they can pick up a lot of XP at Princess, since they deal impact/pierce.

(Gryphon.2) Personally, I'm more concerned with capabilities than with buffing my loyals. A shyde is only 112 XP, and is such a useful unit to have. A sylph is a lot harder to achieve, at 312 XP. In comparison, a great mage is at 374. Generally, I've found myself to trying to get my loyals to L2 as quickly as possible to make them really useful, but afterward they tend to get bits and pieces of XP here and there. They still level reasonably quickly, since they're used in just about every scenario.

(Gryphon.3) I wouldn't say it's been a mistake, but I like to have two healers in most scenarios, and it's quite easy to level a shyde if you set your mind to it. The druid also has the advantages of better movetype and slow over the white mage.

Also, another thing: rangers and avengers are quite useful too here, since they get three moves in the mountains instead of two.