HttT Bay of Pearls-- a better way to win?

[ayearhasgone]

I'm in a bit of a sticky situation here.

I have completed the Bay of Pearls scenario by killing both Orc warlords. I did this after consistently having my arse handed to me by the enemy's land forces. This runs contrary to what I have read here on the forums; the general consensus seems to be that the water fight is harder. However, the battle against the water forces wasn't as difficult as the battle on land, as my battle line was consistently getting demolished.

So instead of focusing on the land war, I made a mad dash for the Thunder Triton with my mermen, freeing others along the way. I took defensive positions on land, which is tricky considering the terrain was fairly plain, except for villages. My battle line began taking the brunt of the enemy's land forces, but it seemed that I could keep sending reinforcements from my small castle. Unfortunately with all my mermen in the far north, water orcs and nagas swiftly moved to engage my land forces. Even though they were weakened by being on land, they managed to cut off my path to the mainland for several turns, and gave my battle line even more grief.

Meanwhile, my mermen made short work of the remaining water forces and assassinated the water warlord. A few turns later I went around the rear and assassinated the second warlord, ending the scenario.

Even though I won, I'm not happy with the results. All my level 2 units are demolished and I cannot move Konrad into combat because I cannot adequately defend him. I feel I need to shift the focus to winning the land battle, but I have very few level 2 units to begin with anyway. I think this may be part of the problem.

[monochromatic]

I feel I need to shift the focus to winning the land battle, but I have very few level 2 units to begin with anyway. I think this may be part of the problem.

You said it.
If you ever feel you need to level more units, go back a couple scenarios! You can see the .gz files in the load page, just load them and play them again!

You definitely want more level 2 units, especially for the soon-to-come SoE, PoW, and VoD. I would think by now Konrad should be at least lvl 2, and you would have a least one captain, a couple rangers and marksmen, a couple druids/white mages/sorceresses, and a plentiful amount of knights. Really, level up as many horsemen as you can. Knights are probably the most overpowered units in the game. Personally, at least. All these units will make the aforementioned scenarios MUCH easier.

I'd say as of now, form a defensive line near the southern bank. Group units around healers and villages, putting tanks/melee units in the front. Survive the first night by shuffling units and utilizing the fact that most orcs do not have a ranged attack to it's fullest. Shaman's slow is very very helpful here. At day, use your archers to cut the orcs to pieces.
Now the next part depends on difficulty:

Easy and Medium:

Rush some mermen north and take the trident. 3 or 4 should be plenty. Use the rest of the mermen to harry the land forces and wipe out the water enemy units. Use the trident to assassinate the leader, and support your land force's northern push.

Hard:

DEFEND THE WATERY HELL COMING AT YOU.

This scenario took me days on hard. The enemy almost outnumbers you, and most of the fights take place at night. Have your mermen stay on the coral reef, where they have 70 def. After surviving the onslaught, take a good number of mermen up to snatch the trident and then kill the leader.

Anyways, good luck!

[Eleazar]

I tend to go by land and sea in about equal strength. Send 4 or 5 merfolk after the trident, the rest to capture as many water villages as possible and then just hold out waiting for the trident. On the land side, go carefully cautiously, with plenty of healers.
When the two groups of merfolk unite (with some judicious village healing) they can take out any aquatic opposition without too much trouble. Then you have a choice of moving your mer-forces to attack the island castle,or support your land forces.

[HomerJ]

My magical 8-ball tells me you need more shamans for slowing.


Greetz
HomerJ

[Anonymissimus]

Here's a replay on hard.
I loose 2 of the loyal merman fighters; I decided to accept that loss though since there are still enough of them for the rest of the campaign. Was afraid of running out of time, needing to attack the prisoner guards during the nightl...

[ayearhasgone]

Thank you all for the tips!

I will jump back a few scenarios and try to obtain more level 2 units, and then modify my land strategy as suggested.

[MRDNRA]

I tend to find this one not too hard to complete on Normal. The key to winning is definitely having enough Knights. 2 or 3, backed up by a few other level 2 melee units (i.e. heroes, and possibly a captain), a few archers/marksmen, and a druid or 2, will be more than enough to easily defend against the first wave of land based units then go on to kill the land warlord.

I have always found the water battle more tricky (at least on normal difficulty, on easy you get so many mermen it's a doddle), as a) I don't like abandoning the coastline villages to bats and nagas, and b) I prefer not to lose the mermen if I can possibly manage it. I tend to use the mermen initially to defend against the first wave of sea based incursions (if it can be adequately called a wave, that is), then send the mermen to get other mermen from near the two guards, and grab the trident, and wipe out the water leader. Ironically, despite the fact I find the water battle a bit more challenging, I still usually defeat the water warlord first!

[ayearhasgone]

Leveling up units is turning out to be harder than I expected. I have one level 2 elvish scout and that's it. All my horsemen and druids keep getting killed.

[monochromatic]

When I said level as many knights as you can, I didn't mean "OMG I should just buy Horsemen!". Horsemen are a tricky unit to play. They can very well kill most units and at the same time die against most melee units. The Knight gains a sword attack, this making it much more versatile: it can now attack melee units without getting ripped to shreds. Use a fighter or archer to soften an enemy unit till the point where it could be killed in one strike from a horseman, and then kill it with the horseman. Keep your shamans/druids in the back, giving them easy kills, unless you want to use a shaman to slow a heavy melee unit. I don't find lvl 2 riders useful; I'd much rather have two scouts instead.

In HttT, try to level a good number of fighters and archers as well. Archers can kill most orcish units without retaliation, and fighters can finish off the rest. They then can serve as tanks and protect your wounded units.

[Anonymissimus]

IMHO the most important general wesnoth fighting rule is
"Either stay with all of your units out of the reach of all enemy units so that they can't attack you during their next turn,
or kill every enemy unit that could attack one of your units during its next turn during your turn."

If both aren't possible,
attack and/or move in such a way that at the end of your turn those units that can be attacked by the enemy during his turn are either expendable units, or are so strong that even if they get attacked by the maximum number of possible units they can't die due to high hitpoints or resistance.
If you realize you can't do enough damage any more to finish off a unit that can attack you in its next turn, slow it.

That applies to every scenario I've ever played I think and even to multiplayer, and most scenarios can be won with it.

As for healers, they should never be attackable unless used to slow a powerful enemy. Horsemen should never be attackable by pierce weapons (orcish archers). Kill the archer with the horsemen during your turn instead.