Test of the Clans: Strategy
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Test of the Clans: Strategy
Hey all, just managed to clear HttT's Test of the Clans on normal and get all four great knights, so I figured I'd share my strategy for doing so.
Quick disclaimer: This strategy involves having every single land-based loyal unit available in the game except the Sergeant, all at maximum level. They aren't all essential, but if you've been neglectful of your loyal units you may find this strategy doesn't work for you. Particularly it depends on your loyal mounted units and the 3 loyal thieves. It also involves having Li'sar with the void armor and the scepter of fire.
First off, send Kalenz to the immediate northwest village, Delfador to the east village, and then Konrad to the southwest village after he's recalled a keep full of troops. The first turn you're going to want to recruit your loyal outrider at the topmost hex, and then Haldiel (who in my case is a paladin) in the top-right hex. the remaining ones should be your highest-level non-loyal mounted units, and the elfish scout line is preferable here. Send Li'sar straight down, she'll be taking care of the green great knight first.
Okay, from now on my instructions won't be this precise, it's just that that setup allows you to capture those three northern villages in the next 2-3 turns without a problem. And bear in mind, that is where you're headed. you're going to send all of your loyal units aside from Li'sar up around the top part of the lake.
This is crucial. If you head southwest you're going to get slaughtered, either that or you'll kill too many units to succeed at your task. Konrad will stay behind because of the way the game's AI works, causing the enemy troops' general march to head straight for your keep. This will keep the vast majority of the clan members' assault away from your loyal troops. Defend the keep and the three surrounding villages with a ZoC ring of recruited dwarven guardsmen, pretty much the only level-1 units out there that can reliably stand up to a lancer's assault, and even then these guys are going to be dropping like flies, so heal when you can (A druid or shyde within the ZoC ring would help with that) and don't be afraid to over-recruit, after taking down the blue castle you'll be getting plenty of gold. It's far more important to make sure that your guardsman blockade stays intact. If these lancers get to Konrad he will not last very long, I assure you. In addition, while the suidical lancers make this hard to avoid at times, try not to kill any of the units you can get to low HP. Killing them would just reduce the number of kills you can achieve before you win, and if you're going for full assassination like this guide is meant for, that's an obvious no-no. Just bring them to as low HP as possible (at times swarming a unit with guardsmen and javelinning them until one more shot would kill them works wonders) so they'll just run away to heal.
One very important thing to note: the "see enemy moves" button in the actions menu is your friend here. Lancers will be the death of you, they're probably the scariest units an enemy can possibly have on their recruitment table, except for the obvious cheating answers like dragons. They're useless for you since you'd have to level them up, but as the enemy can just flat-out recruit them, they can spam the borderline-suicidal little monsters with abandon and lay waste to your troops. Very very few of even your level 3 units will be guaranteed to survive even a single combat sequence from them, so it's very important to stay just outside of their range, let them come to you, and then kill them with your scouts, riders and outriders with a barrage of arrows. As for the archers the enemy will throw at you, that's where your assassins come in. Poison them and then move on whenever that's an option, they're mostly just a nuisance unless you let a whole lot of them gang up on one of your horsemen, and you need your kill count to remain as low as possible.
Your loyal squad, with minor mounted non-loyal accompaniment (which you should be prepared to put in harm's way whenever somebody has to rise to the occasion) will take out the blue captain first. Seize the villages there and then advance to the next one down. Li'sar should have taken out the green leader early on and should be heading to the southwest leader to take him out as well. If Li'sar got significantly injured in her effort to destroy the green leader, have her capture the four villages near the green keep, that will amount to 32 hit points while giving you more money to fund Konrad's battle back at the base. It will take a while for Li'sar to get to the southwest base, but just bear with her and she'll make it there before even half of the turns are up. In essence, Li'sar works clockwise around the map while your loyal troops work counter-clockwise, and you keep taking out the leaders until you meet up.
That's pretty much it, good luck!
Quick disclaimer: This strategy involves having every single land-based loyal unit available in the game except the Sergeant, all at maximum level. They aren't all essential, but if you've been neglectful of your loyal units you may find this strategy doesn't work for you. Particularly it depends on your loyal mounted units and the 3 loyal thieves. It also involves having Li'sar with the void armor and the scepter of fire.
First off, send Kalenz to the immediate northwest village, Delfador to the east village, and then Konrad to the southwest village after he's recalled a keep full of troops. The first turn you're going to want to recruit your loyal outrider at the topmost hex, and then Haldiel (who in my case is a paladin) in the top-right hex. the remaining ones should be your highest-level non-loyal mounted units, and the elfish scout line is preferable here. Send Li'sar straight down, she'll be taking care of the green great knight first.
Okay, from now on my instructions won't be this precise, it's just that that setup allows you to capture those three northern villages in the next 2-3 turns without a problem. And bear in mind, that is where you're headed. you're going to send all of your loyal units aside from Li'sar up around the top part of the lake.
This is crucial. If you head southwest you're going to get slaughtered, either that or you'll kill too many units to succeed at your task. Konrad will stay behind because of the way the game's AI works, causing the enemy troops' general march to head straight for your keep. This will keep the vast majority of the clan members' assault away from your loyal troops. Defend the keep and the three surrounding villages with a ZoC ring of recruited dwarven guardsmen, pretty much the only level-1 units out there that can reliably stand up to a lancer's assault, and even then these guys are going to be dropping like flies, so heal when you can (A druid or shyde within the ZoC ring would help with that) and don't be afraid to over-recruit, after taking down the blue castle you'll be getting plenty of gold. It's far more important to make sure that your guardsman blockade stays intact. If these lancers get to Konrad he will not last very long, I assure you. In addition, while the suidical lancers make this hard to avoid at times, try not to kill any of the units you can get to low HP. Killing them would just reduce the number of kills you can achieve before you win, and if you're going for full assassination like this guide is meant for, that's an obvious no-no. Just bring them to as low HP as possible (at times swarming a unit with guardsmen and javelinning them until one more shot would kill them works wonders) so they'll just run away to heal.
One very important thing to note: the "see enemy moves" button in the actions menu is your friend here. Lancers will be the death of you, they're probably the scariest units an enemy can possibly have on their recruitment table, except for the obvious cheating answers like dragons. They're useless for you since you'd have to level them up, but as the enemy can just flat-out recruit them, they can spam the borderline-suicidal little monsters with abandon and lay waste to your troops. Very very few of even your level 3 units will be guaranteed to survive even a single combat sequence from them, so it's very important to stay just outside of their range, let them come to you, and then kill them with your scouts, riders and outriders with a barrage of arrows. As for the archers the enemy will throw at you, that's where your assassins come in. Poison them and then move on whenever that's an option, they're mostly just a nuisance unless you let a whole lot of them gang up on one of your horsemen, and you need your kill count to remain as low as possible.
Your loyal squad, with minor mounted non-loyal accompaniment (which you should be prepared to put in harm's way whenever somebody has to rise to the occasion) will take out the blue captain first. Seize the villages there and then advance to the next one down. Li'sar should have taken out the green leader early on and should be heading to the southwest leader to take him out as well. If Li'sar got significantly injured in her effort to destroy the green leader, have her capture the four villages near the green keep, that will amount to 32 hit points while giving you more money to fund Konrad's battle back at the base. It will take a while for Li'sar to get to the southwest base, but just bear with her and she'll make it there before even half of the turns are up. In essence, Li'sar works clockwise around the map while your loyal troops work counter-clockwise, and you keep taking out the leaders until you meet up.
That's pretty much it, good luck!
Last edited by RaustBD on November 23rd, 2013, 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Test of the Clans: Strategy
Very nice write up, do you have a replay as well?
Re: Test of the Clans: Strategy
Sure do! And just to clarify, some of the advice I gave I didn't actually START the scenario with. The poison trick in particular I came up with when I realized how close my kill count was getting.Crow_T wrote:Very nice write up, do you have a replay as well?
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sadlyknight
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Re: Test of the Clans: Strategy
Wow, that must be difficult.