tRoW: The Kalian missions

[fredbobsmith2]

Yes I realize there are other threads on this but I couldn't find one addressing my specific question:
what is the optimal order to complete them in?

The walkthrough advises me to do Cursed Isle last, but I find that I cannot get through the Dragon or Lizard Beach with the puny amount of gold I have. After losing most of my gold on Rough Landing, I managed to get 53 more from New Land, so I start with that much on top of the minimum starting gold.

Would the best way to proceed be to do Cursed Isle first, then Troll Hole/Lizard Beach, and do the Dragon last to aim to get the early finish bonus?

[fredbobsmith2]

Okay...

So I went ahead and did Cursed Isle, Lizard Beach, and Troll Hole in that order. Now I have 64 gold on top of the starting gold. Is it still possible to get the bonus and not have extremely heavy losses, or should I go back and do them in another order?

[Boldek]

My only advice is that do cursed isle first and kill the vampire lady with a few mages. That gives you plenty of bonus time and not that much upkeep. My strategy in troll hole is to recruit footpads and thugs, because when fighting trolls underground in tunnels you'll want to grind at their hitpoints without too much loss, so lots of lvl 1 troops getting spammed at them helped a bit.

[fredbobsmith2]

Hmm. I did the exact opposite. I recalled 3 mermen to defend against the first waves of trolls, and 2 Highwaymen with some high-level magi to finish the scenario. I still ended with just a small amount of gold, due to the rather high upkeep, and the few villages that I had access to for the first ~10 turns.

Would it have been a better idea to purposely send several units in to the spider caves in order to take their villages? I don't actually have any problems until I get to the Dragon, where I need plenty of gold to get the early finish bonus, which is necessary (according to the walkthrough) to complete the Vanguard.

[Boldek]

I actually didn't find the spiders, instead, the spiders just charged out and killed some scouts. I was able to lure out one of the troll leaders and kill him away from keep with an archmage, but I suggest not using too many mermen as they are confined to the water and just eat income. As poachers and footpads can swim rather well, I used them to exterminate any trolls that blundered into the water.

[fredbobsmith2]

Did finish Troll Hole with enough gold for the next scenario though? It doesn't take many units to eat my gold too quickly.

Okay, so I did the missions in the order listed above. After losing all of my gold, I managed to just barely get through. Unfortunately, I know that it is near impossible to get through the Vanguard, or the majority of the remaining scenarios, without plenty of gold.

In other words, it didn't work.

Should I redo the missions in another order, or go even further back and try to save some gold from Rough Landing? Or should I just employ a different, money-saving strategy for each of the missions (I sense I may have over-recruited on Lizard Beach)

[fredbobsmith2]

I went ahead and redid Rough Landing, but the puny number of villages and the tiny early finish bonus still have me with just 80 bonus gold for the first of the Kalian missions. I doubt that I could finish Rough Landing with any less than I used, which was 3 rounds of recalls/recruits, starting with 430 gold.

So resigned as I am to starting with little gold, how should I best proceed? I reason that, since a lot of gold is needed at the end of the last mission for the Vanguard, it must be either the Dragon or Cursed Isle. The Dragon needs plenty of gold going in to it in the first place though, as does Lizard Beach. Troll Hole doesn't need much gold, but you won't come out of it with any either.

Any ideas?

[Lord-Knightmare]

If I recall correctly, I did Troll Hole, The Dragon, Lizard Beach and Cursed Isle. That was the way I did them.
Troll Hole
Burin and an Arch Mage and a Mage of Light are key units in this scenario. Highwaymen and Huntsmen are no exception.
The Dragon
Waited for the Dragon at turn 18. Recalled the most veteran of my troops. Supported by a Mage of Light and two White Mages.
Lizard Beach
This scenario was a bloody pain - not for me but the enemies - A Great Mage was enough for them. Burin was a great help as well.
Cursed Isle
My biggest mistake was reading the walkthrough! It was the easiest of them. Ghosts were eradicated by Arch Mages and Great Mage. The Vampire Queen was bathed in Holy Light

[fredbobsmith2]

Huh? You managed to do the Dragon with near-minimum gold???

I am in awe.

Or is there a way to do Troll Hole without losing all your money?

[CMaster]

I used to fear scenarios with heavy saurian opposition, including the dragon scenario of tRoW. Until I realized that simple mage spam is the best counter against them, since the mages simply laugh at the high defenses of the saurians and roast them alive. You'll be surprised how quick work mages can do of those lizards. True, you are likely to take looses, but what does it matter, if it's newly recruited units? Simply recruit mages until you have exactly enough gold left to recall your veteran mages, and you'll be fine.

Ps: Do the dragon last. It gives the most gold of all these scenarios.

[fredbobsmith2]

Wow. I just played Lizard Beach, going in with the thought that a mage-heavy army would be slaughtered. But with a few fodder peasants thrown in, I managed to not only finish it with few losses, I ended with a bonus of 120 gold for the next scenario!

Someone should really go and update the walkthrough page. I'm stunned by how effective it was.