EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

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NeroSonic
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Joined: March 26th, 2011, 5:20 am

EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by NeroSonic »

How to beat it? I put the difficulty to its max, thought I could beat it, but no way. This scenario is really damn hard. I have about 8-9 HI, feeling big and strong, but they get pierced and axed non-stop. Then when there's an opening, a bat slides in and starts working on my leader (and you know how frustrating it is to kill these bats with 60% def). So I tried the 'river' strategy, but the same fate follows. So about turn ~10 my HI army dwindles to ~3 with about yellow/red health, not to forget my leader being harassed by the bats constantly. By that time, the bats have consumed all my villages and I am surrounded by a horde of enemies blocking the trap door (if my leader even survives that is). River or castle strategy, I'm definitely not successful in this scenario. :hmm:

Thanks for any help.
Ben
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CheeseLord
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by CheeseLord »

Hiya,
I feel for you - this scenario took countless hours to complete!!! :augh:

For this scenario, I did use the across the river strategy, and recruited 2 mages, and the rest were HI. Perhaps an important thing to remember is that you can sort of control the AI. It wants to attack the easiest unit to kill, so don't be afraid to sacrifice 1 HI along the way - especially when the lvl 2 undead from purple arrive. Don't be afraid to occasionally reload, as HI are extremely volatile, but don't do it excessively if you wish to save yourself from everlasting agony. Ctrl+O is like alcohol, good occasionally, bad if you binge ;) .

I took the first few turns to continue recruiting with my income before the enemy arrive. Make sure you do this, an extra 2 HI really count come the end of this scenario. Try to limit the AI to only 2-3 attacking spaces per unit (excluding bats) during the first night, as the AI will be less aggressive it's unlikely to kill your units outright. Use the mages primarily as the ABB (Anti-Bat-Brigade) with their magical attack.

Give the level 2 kills to someone who can level up into a shocktrooper - they are BEASTS with their mace and hp, and when Dacyn returns on turn 12, you need them to break through the front line. The trapdoor is on 9,16, so make sure that by turn 11 you leader is at the most 4-5 squares away from it.

Here's a replay I did, just to show what I did. I know, I was extremely lucky (no, I only reloaded once!!), but I THINK I did it with a reasonable amount of room to spare.

Good luck, and hope that helped!! :D
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Maiklas3000
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by Maiklas3000 »

Are you playing under 1.9? It's harder under 1.9 than 1.8. I beat it under 1.8 (on the hardest difficulty with no save-loads), but I failed under 1.9.
quantumfleet
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by quantumfleet »

Maiklas3000 wrote:Are you playing under 1.9? It's harder under 1.9 than 1.8. I beat it under 1.8 (on the hardest difficulty with no save-loads), but I failed under 1.9.
Are you sure? There's nothing in either the code or changelog to suggest that's the case. Maybe you got lucky?
Currently working on various ideas using 1.9.8.9
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NeroSonic
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by NeroSonic »

Maiklas3000 wrote:Are you playing under 1.9? It's harder under 1.9 than 1.8. I beat it under 1.8 (on the hardest difficulty with no save-loads), but I failed under 1.9.
I play the stable version, so yes, version 1.8. Cheeselord, thank you for your very complete response. I tried your method and it seemed to work! I've provided the replay.
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Maiklas3000
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by Maiklas3000 »

quantumfleet wrote:
Maiklas3000 wrote:Are you playing under 1.9? It's harder under 1.9 than 1.8. I beat it under 1.8 (on the hardest difficulty with no save-loads), but I failed under 1.9.
Are you sure? There's nothing in either the code or changelog to suggest that's the case. Maybe you got lucky?
Yes, I'm sure it's harder under 1.9. I beat it more than once under 1.8, but that's not the main reason I say it's now harder. The changelog says the AI has been changed (improved) under 1.9, which I appreciate, but it's not the main difference. The main difference is that the AI's recruitment is buggy under 1.9, not using the full recruitment list, recruiting only the fastest, toughest units, as per a bug report I filed. In this case, The Outpost, it recruits no Walking Corpses under 1.9. Across all the campaigns, many scenarios are either much harder or easier under 1.9, and blitzing/assassination is less effective, as the leaders often recruit only level 2's/3's, bankrupting themselves quickly and semi-permanently.
ayearhasgone
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by ayearhasgone »

I haven't played 1.9x yet so I can't comment on that. But with 1.8.6 on normal difficulty, I had success sending out some distractions and evacuating Gweddry from the keep as the undead got close. Somehow I survived.

Frankly this whole campaign could probably qualify as expert. I'm working my way through SotBE right now and it's not nearly as hard. But maybe it's me.
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CheeseLord
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by CheeseLord »

NeroSonic wrote:I play the stable version, so yes, version 1.8. Cheeselord, thank you for your very complete response. I tried your method and it seemed to work! I've provided the replay.
Hey, happy to help and glad you found it useful :D
ayearhasgone wrote:I haven't played 1.9x yet so I can't comment on that. But with 1.8.6 on normal difficulty, I had success sending out some distractions and evacuating Gweddry from the keep as the undead got close. Somehow I survived.

Frankly this whole campaign could probably qualify as expert. I'm working my way through SotBE right now and it's not nearly as hard. But maybe it's me.
I totally agree, would love to hear the reasoning behind why it's classified as Intermediate (I'm sure it used to be labelled as 'hard' on version 1.4 or something??...)
Lord of Cheese.....especially Parmesan!!!
None shall stand against the Dwarfs in their homeland

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ozean
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by ozean »

I tried to beat this scenario in Royal Guard setting on 1.10 and I have to agree that it is extremely hard to beat it. I guess I might go so far as to say that it is not possible to beat it without saveloading – which I find inappropriate if one has to do it regularly. I tried to beat it using both tactics and with only one or two saveloads but always gave up at the latest on turn 9, when it became clear that I won't be able to make it. No recruiting possible after a few turns (especially if one tries the across the river tactic), the AI is getting richer all the time, so that there is a continuous flow of new units. I guess it is not completely impossible if you just have the right kind of luck, are able to level to a shocktrooper earlyish, don't get hit by too many arrows etc.

What kind of makes this worse than other really hard scenarios (like the flight through the caves in Northern Rebirth) is that I don't see much possibilty for trying different tactics. In Royal Guard difficulty you cannot rush any of the bosses, there is no line to hold except for falling back to the river, which cuts you off all resources and recruiting if you do it the safe way (other ways don't make much sense, since you cannot sacrifice more than one unit here).

I would like to take a look at the replays, but they don't play under 1.10, so I guess I will shift to another campaign for now. It is a pity though, because I remember I enjoyed this campaign when I played it for the first time (normal difficulty then).

If anyone has any other tips as to how to beat this scenario in 1.10, then I would of course be happy to try them!
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taptap
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Re: EI: The Outpost (Royal Guard)

Post by taptap »

Never give up before your leader / crowned / loyals are dead, a single turn can turn many things around against the AI. Afair I sent a mage north to the second village on the west of the river (sounds suicidal, but the skeletons seem to prefer to go after you and just the bats hit him/her). If you get a quick cav you can send it southeast where it can sit on a village and distract the bats (again it is the bats that go after it not the skeletons, if it isn't quick and doesn't reach the village the bats kill it too fast so it should do something else). Either way they will preserve some income and even in the worst case they were still bat bait for some turns. What was helpful was not yielding the direct adjacent villages too easily. Afair I expected to sacrifice a unit to slow them down so they don't hit my outpost during the night, but instead the northern undead regrouped not really attacking me. I believe this is the key, you have to time when the undead arrive at your outpost / village defence. + Recruiting HI later changes the initial AI recruits as well, more skeletons less nasty archers. In fact if I recall correctly this was one of the scenarios where I experimented most and discovered that you can manipulate the AI recruits. Lost 2 HI and the Cav.

But I didn't manage to play through the whole campaign on this difficulty.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
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