Stuck on HttT The valley of death

[Trau]

I'm pretty sure your gold gets reset if it's below the standard amount of gold on the next level... someone confirm/deny?

[AI]

This is correct, the minimum gold for the next scenario is 300 (100 on hard).

[Jaguar Warrior]

I just finished that level on medium. I managed to kill all three liches but was disappointed when I found out that the so-called bonus does not exist or will be revealed later... especially because I lost a couple rangers and avengers.

Here's the recipe:
You need one paladin, one grand knight, one horseman, and lots of things which can serve as a decoy and are preferably strong against undead (faeries etc..)
Also, you have to realize that there are two items of holywater (to the north-east and the south-west of the map) which give one of your units arcane melee attacks.

My tactic was to separate my army into two fighting forces and two assassin squads. One bunch of guys stayed in the keep, and drew the attention of the undead to the south. The other force moved into the forest close-by to the north-east, and they attracted the forces of the guy north. The guy to the east really annoyed me with his walking corpses cause they would slaughter my level 3 units simply by suiciding themselves and taking 6 hit points of my guys every time. That fact that they were so weak was actually kind of a disadvantage.

Anyhow, the important thing was that while there are undead closing by from the north, I sent my Grand Knight northwards from the west-side of the mountain range, picking up the holywater in the process. Same with my Paladin and horseman. I sent them to the south west (towards the holywater) while paying attention to evading the walking corpses and the undead from the south.

Around turn 7 or 8 I had killed the Lich to the north with only one charge of my Grand Knight, boosted with holy water, and the Lich to the south with my Paladin and Temporarily-Holy-Horseman. During all this time my two main fighting forces served as huge decoys. Luckily, there was a moat around the caste, and a forest nearby... I wouldn't know what I would have done without them. Furthermore, I was glad to discover that the lich to the east would actually run out of money and stop recruiting a whole bunch of walking corpses every turn. By turn 10 the forces of the south and north had been severely thinned out and the walking corpses were dispersed, so I sent in my Kalenz and some other units to take out the third lich which I managed to do during turn 11, turning Kalenz into a high lord during the process.

After having won this mission I realized that a big mistake I made was to not having recruited a lot of level 1 units and use them as fodder. Having done that would surely have prevented those ugly zombies from taking down several of my dear avengers/sharpshooters.

Hope this helps you..


Also, can someone plz confirm to me that there actually is a bonus for killing all three liches?

[pauxlo]

Also, can someone plz confirm to me that there actually is a bonus for killing all three liches?

You'll get the usual early-finish bonus, this is some gold for the villages on this map. Not very useful to lose for this some level-3-units.
So, better have some level one units use the experience from the walking corpses ... someone some months ago proposed a "line of archers". They won't kill the corpses on retaliation, and so be attacked from at most two each turn. In your turn they can kill the corpses without retaliation. Be sure to rotate wounded ones out, and have some healing. You may even level some shamans here.

[revolushn]

Thats a really god idea. I went back to redo this scenario combining the grand knight and line of archers. But I didnt use archers, I ONLY used shamans. I had a couple of more powerful units with them to combat the wraiths (playing on hard) but ended up gaining four druids at the end of the level and two of the Liches killed. Will have to refine this and try to get all three. But yeah, is there any other bonus other than gold for killing all three? I too lost a few good units that i wouldnt have if I had just stayed on my base and defended for 20 or so turns.

[Caphriel]

I just beat it on medium, by killing all three liches on turn 8. I went with a mixed archer and shaman wall on the right, with a couple fighters thrown in, and a captain, Konrad, and a druid over there to help out. I had 3 knights, two of which were close to levelling; which I sent northwest to grab the holy water and villages. I also sent a sorceress, shyde, and two outlaws. The bulk of my strength (Delfador, Kalenz, 2 white mages, two red mages, two bandits, an outlaw, a ranger, and a hero) went southwest. The plan was to quickly kill the southern lich, then split that force to help hold the line against the walking corpses and to kill the northern lich. Judicious use of mages and thugs to the south allowed me to eliminate all the enemies except the lich a few turns after combat began. I lost the hero, but figured it was worth the trade. To the north, a tight formation allowed me to rotate my units around while killing the incoming enemies one at a time. One of the knights leveled to Grand Knight, and one of the outlaws hit level 3. I moved the grand knight, outlaw, and fugitive north to kill the lich once the recruits were dead. The shyde and one of the knights were almost dead, so they stayed to heal. The remaining knight, with the holy water, moved east with the sorceress to catch the lich that at that point had begun moving north for some reason.

Things didn't go so well on the east. The archers held up reasonably well, but I didn't have enough healing there, and the shamans in the line weren't getting healed at all. Oops! I started over there with two fighters, two shamans, and five archers at level one. One of the fighters and one of the archers leveled. I lost two archers, the other fighter, and one of the shamans, and would have lost more if reinforcements from the south hadn't arrived. It worked alright until the walking corspes began to overflow the line, wrapping around and surrounding it. Some turns I retreated the line to reduce damage, some turns I sniped at the corpses. At the end, there were still 28 walking corpses to the east, and if that lich hadn't exposed itself, I'd have lost more units holding off and then hewing through them.

So, regarding the archer wall... I think revolushn's shaman wall would have worked better for me. The only reason I came out in such good condition was that I successfully nuked the level two skeletons and archers to the south before many of them got to attack. I still have negative gold at the end, though, so finishing early didn't do anything for me but reduce the damage I took (and the experience gained, I guess.)

[revolushn]

good job. If I go back to play HttT on medium (but what fun will that be..). I will try to use even more shamans and get a whole lot levelled up. still want to try and get all three liches dead on hard though. Whenever I get a little tired of the campaign im on I got back to this level to try and do just that. Still, if there isnt a bonus Im not sure of the point (other than my own satisfaction of course). One question though- How on earth did you get 2 white mages and two red? Im sure when i last played on medium I tried hard to level up as many mages as I could before that level and couldnt get four. Maybe i wasnt trying hard enough.

[Caphriel]

One of the mages was intelligent, and one of the white mages was Moremirmu. I put a lot of effort into leveling the mages, and they were actually all level 2 by Crossroads. I know I had two white mages at the Elensefar, but I think one of the red mages leveled up in that one.

Also, I only had two level 3 units at this point, the Shyde and Konrad. Of course, by the end of Valley of Death, I had an Arch Mage, a Paladin, and a Grand Knight.

I couldn't really say how I did it, though, except that I recruited 2 mages on the Isle (plus the loyal one), and they got about half the kills, and I never let them die. I did lose mages recruited later, though.

[Oberiko]

I found what I think is a relatively straight forward way to beat this level (on medium), though I did get a bit lucky.

What I did was send a single lvl-3 Grand Knight [GK] to the north-west (picking up the holy water on the way), my main force (padded with a few thief meat-shields) to the south-west and force of elves (mixed archers and shamans) into the forest patch west of the initial keep.

Going behind the mountains, my GK faced only one opponent, a wraith which he killed on its attacking round. When he got to the opposing lich, the two-hits from his charge attack killed it. My main force had little problems cleaning up the south-west (the only units I lost were two of the meat-shields). The endless zombie horde from the east kept itself busy against my elves in the forest.

After killing the NW lich, I then wheeled my GK around and headed east to approach the last lich from above. My main force moved NE as well to distract some of the zombies. On the 12th turn my GK reached the lich, and as previously, killed it with the single attack.

I think this could be done in fewer turns if a player had two GKs (or lancers) to use in assassinating the lichs.

[zookeeper]

Going behind the mountains, my GK faced only one opponent, a wraith which he killed on its attacking round. When he got to the opposing lich, the two-hits from his charge attack killed it.

Doesn't this strategy completely rely on your GK not getting even a bit unlucky? If you miss both on first attack and don't hit all on the second attack (against 60% defense), the lich might very well already kill you.

If you actually charged the lich and got both strikes in, that was already pretty lucky.

[RobertWinfrey]

I'm brand new to this game, and this game type in general. Turn based is not really my thing, but i've fallen in love with this game. I've completed Southern Guard, and jumped right into this campaign. I thought it looked long, so i'd be able to make a really leveled up army.

Well.. it was a nice thought. I've a paladin, arch mage, level 3 Konrad, and a Knight + a Mermaid healer with the storm trident. I've been slogging through most missions by seizing villages and spamming fodder troops till the enemy dies by attrition. The problem is i've lost most of my good troops in the process.

This level is a killer. I'm on Medium. So far I've been having the most success with an early rush on the east lich. But i still end up dying in the late rounds. No White mages come for me..I'm pretty sure that guy died or maybe i've not lasted long enough?

*well i managed, just. I rushed the zombie lich with all my leveled characters, and a few shamans. I stationed Thieves and merman at the starting base facing south. Elves to the NE in the woods, Archers, Fighters, More shamans. I was able to defeat the east lich and the SW lich but ran out of time against the Northern one.

[HomerJ]

... + a Mermaid healer with the storm trident.

Just a little note: You might want to give an item that adds a ranged attack to a unit that doesn't have one at all before.


Greetz
HomerJ

[Max]

Also, can someone plz confirm to me that there actually is a bonus for killing all three liches?

it's a bit confusing - when there are different ways to solve a scenario, e.g. "survive 20 rounds" or "kill all enemy leaders" the latter has "(BONUS)" added. at least that's the case in all mainline campaigns. but the bonus is just a synonym for the usual early finishing bonus.

since you expect the efb anyway maybe it's better to not mention it unless there is a real bonus, like in blackwater port (httt) scenario, where you get some loyal units (the additional option only shows up if you play it on hard).

[Instantblade]

When I played on medium THERE WAS a bonus for killing the 3 liches. Just don't remember what.
On the level it's not so hard to beat the 3 liches. Either go for 1 at a time or divide your group in 2 (don't remember which one i did back then).

On hard it's a pain in the ass just to stay alive. But I guess that if you have some 2 knights almost leveling up to GK, that... theoretically it's possible to kill the 3. But you have to have played a great game until there, with great units, and not minding so much that you can actually loose them (and probably will loose some).

Or cheat. But that's lenghty, and lame, and boring, and stupid.

On hard, and after lots of fiascos, I tried to go to the north, sending Kalenz for the holy water on the west and my almost grand knight to the southeast to get the other holy water.

That knight was sent to the middle of the zombies, that together with the southern undead were properly delayed by kamikaze thieves. (The southern ones not so much... which makes me think if they even served their purpose, but the zombies really tried to whack my thieves and lost some vital time).

The purpose of this is to delay the easterner force flying units for a while. When the knight got there, those units were already being killed by my main (fleeing) force on the north, while my knight was now a GK and murdering each and every zombie (and I mean ALL of them).

Well, I mostly defended myself in the northern mountains.
As I said.
Theoretically, or strategically it is possible - if you have the right force, to send one GK in day light to a lich and another to the other lich, while your running away force manages to kill the northern one.

But, unless you are a cheater, you actually do care about how many units you have left after that scenario, and get a little less ambitious.

Ah, why the runaway to the north?

1- There is all the way a mountain slope to protect you.

2- The south is all clear until you actually reach the mountains - meaning fights with the undead on clear land.

3- Attacking the eastern one, reads trap all along. The northern and southern will be upon you, while you're stuck fighting morons.

4- And the main point - the northern lich has less cash. For only this one, I might consider attacking it first.


Of course all this might change if, for example, at game start you have 2 paladins, or something. Different units, different strategies.

[TheGreatRings]

Well, most of these suggestions seem to be by better players than I. I find this a very hard level. Usually I beat it now, but its not garunteed, and may come down to luck.

Here's what I usually do. I stay in the middle fort. I recruit a lot of mages, white mages if I have any, and healers. I send a pair of knights (if available) to grab the holy water, and I send a line of weak troops like elvish bowmen to slow up that flood of walking corpses from the right side of the map. Then I dig in and try to last them out. Sometimes I nail the eastern Lich if he comes out of his fortress, and if I have enough troops left, I go after the southern Lich with my survivors once he runs out of troops. I've never taken out the northern Lich, but I think once I got the other two. I haven't played this in a while though, so maybe I can do better now. I'm going to play it again tonight. Its one of my favorite battles.