I'm Stuck At The Northern Outpost in the Eastern Invasion

[Snorklecat]

The thieves are kicking my butt. By the time I actually locate the thief leader, my army is decimated. Any ideas on strategy?

[Elvish_Pillager]

Advance lots of units.

http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8296

[Zhukov]

Any ideas on strategy?

Play a decent campaign.

Okay okay, I'll be serious. I recomend having a single group move around the villages. Don't split your forces. Each time you approach a village, gather your units around and then capture the village. If Bandits pop out you already have them surrounded, you can usually cripple them before they even get a turn.

[kiet]

Myself,I had a near-to-advance Arch Mage that took care of any unit around the village.
When location the boss I just use my Arch Mage and attack him,if not sufficient enough,I´ll just use a mage to support him since Assasins and thieves have VERY good defence on all terrains,exept shallow water.

[TheChosenOne]

Easy. Go and recall all your non-HI troops from the previous scenarios. Scout the villages one by one (and make sure your army is near the villages scouted such that they can reach it in the same turn).

For the undeads, leave 'em to Owaec. He'll deal with those bastards.

[Tmoiy]

For the undeads, leave 'em to Owaec. He'll deal with those bastards.

Don't depend on it. In my experience, more often than not Owaec will bash some undead and then go charging out to fight himself and get slaughtered.

[TheChosenOne]

Get some mages and send them south. (By now you should have at least a white/red mage from the first scenario, recall them)

[pqueiro]

Actually, I sent two HI and whoever got the holy ankh at the bottom left (for me, it was a strong/resilient horseman on his way to becoming a kickass Grand Knight) for the undead - there's some nice experience to be gained there, plus you make sure your allied leader what's-his-name doesn't get himself stupidly killed. I then took the mages north, where their magical attacks are very welcome against slippery thieves.

As for the villages, yeah, take a group, surround a village. Do it one by one, and be careful that some villages trigger massive numbers of outlaws position your units carefully and only trigger those things during the day (or at dawn). You don't want to fight that many chaotic units in unfavourable terrain and at night.