help for scenario : the princess's revenge

[MawhrinSkel]

I went for a hilariously cowardly strategy. (1.0.2)

Recalled two knights, sent them after the holy water.

Recruited elvish fighters.

Immediately moved the three key units up towards the extreme north west corner, using the elvish fighters to slow the north eastern enemy. Mostly it's the wraiths that are the problem. Try to time it so the wraiths attack during the daytime, with the fighter in forest or on hills. Do not attack them - you want the fight to last as many turns as possible. A few fighters followed the key units and screened them from any enemies that got through.

The knights waited the far side of the north eastern and western leaders, just close enough to attack the keep with one move. As soon as it is daytime, attack. They can then kill a Lich with one successful charging hit. Unfortunately, I only managed to kill one, and saveloading is against my religion .

Mucking about with the knights and lichs is optional, but kinda cool. Killing leaders makes me feel less like an appalling coward.

I'm playing HttT again, and this time went to the Isle of the Damned which should make this scenario much easier. Free white mages, and recalled thugs/bandits are very good against skeleton types. Muff Malal is good for levelling mages though.

What I'd really like here is a unit with a firststrike attack. Give him the holy water, and let vast numbers of WCs sacrifice themselves against him.

[Mycroft]

i used the following strategy successfully on easy and medium so far:

*) 2 lvl 2 Elvish Rider take the Holy Waters (they usualy get to lvl 3 this campaign) - one than helps in the north, one in the south

*) 3 lvl 2 Elf Fighter stay in the castle with Konrad, 1 beeiing placed in the village adjuscent to the castle, rotated out every other turn (they usualy level all 3 as well)
*) my knights and paladins go south with a white mage and some lvl 1 elvs/mages and kill off the blue leader

*) all other troops i have left over (Delfaldor, Kalens, a shyde, 3-4 melee units) go north and kill the yellow one after the first wave of wraiths and skelletons from there is dismissed

i'm probably still wasting to much time in the beginning, getting to the corpse summoner was a close call on medium

[Gelf]

I'm having the sinking feeling, as I read these posts, that I'm NOT going to win this level. People are referring to their "knights" (plural), or this or that, and I'm just thinking "Hmm, I don't have any of those, at least not anymore"... paladins, as in, more than one? White mage(s) -plural?! I'm lucky to see a level 2 unit here and there, and as for lvl 3, only have an archmage and shyde. The AI seems to swarm lvl 3 units with an incredible ferocity... I haven't been able to keep important people alive without just leaving them out of where they are needed most. I doubt I can beat the princess revenge level with mostly lvl 1 units. They're outclassed on numbers, resistances, missle, and melee by many of the skeletons. The walking dead, who travel in packs, have a horribly effective strategy... they all attack the same unit. That ensures I'll lose it (nothing can survive 10-12 walking dead in one round, it seems), and I've got 3 units who, if they die, and they will die from this tactic, it ends the level. So I'm doing something horribly, horribly wrong. I'd love to keep going, but... it looks bad. Heh, I'd hate to see what the hard difficulty looks like. I've heard tales of people playing without losing a single unit - I'd love to know how to do that, but even terrain doesn't keep the elves alive long enough to rereat - my units either unwounded, or dead, on this level. How do you stop the swarming and guaranteed death of a unit, short of leaving it out of the battle or simple luck?

[kiet]

I'm having the sinking feeling, as I read these posts, that I'm NOT going to win this level. People are referring to their "knights" (plural), or this or that, and I'm just thinking "Hmm, I don't have any of those, at least not anymore"... paladins, as in, more than one? White mage(s) -plural?! I'm lucky to see a level 2 unit here and there, and as for lvl 3, only have an archmage and shyde. The AI seems to swarm lvl 3 units with an incredible ferocity... I haven't been able to keep important people alive without just leaving them out of where they are needed most. I doubt I can beat the princess revenge level with mostly lvl 1 units. They're outclassed on numbers, resistances, missle, and melee by many of the skeletons. The walking dead, who travel in packs, have a horribly effective strategy... they all attack the same unit. That ensures I'll lose it (nothing can survive 10-12 walking dead in one round, it seems), and I've got 3 units who, if they die, and they will die from this tactic, it ends the level. So I'm doing something horribly, horribly wrong. I'd love to keep going, but... it looks bad. Heh, I'd hate to see what the hard difficulty looks like. I've heard tales of people playing without losing a single unit - I'd love to know how to do that, but even terrain doesn't keep the elves alive long enough to rereat - my units either unwounded, or dead, on this level. How do you stop the swarming and guaranteed death of a unit, short of leaving it out of the battle or simple luck?

Well,the way to get this many units is to let a unit that you want to advance to make killing blow the whole time and keep the one near advancing away from overwhelming enemies.If course,don´t do anything TOO risky with your leveled up units.Like ramming a Yeti with your knight isn´t a smart thing.

[Elvish_Pillager]

I've heard tales of people playing without losing a single unit - I'd love to know how to do that, but even terrain doesn't keep the elves alive long enough to rereat - my units either unwounded, or dead, on this level. How do you stop the swarming and guaranteed death of a unit, short of leaving it out of the battle or simple luck?

In this level, the main way I dealt with the Walking Corpses was with a resilient Elvish Champion with holy water. It destroyed about a third of the army and then killed the Lich; this ended the scenario two turns early, saving my other forces, since the north lich had already been taken out by the other holy champion and the southwest lich by a horde of level 3 units.

In reality, it was mainly an assassination strategy - the two Champions and my huge army killed off the Liches, ending the scenario before the Corpses could really take their toll.

Another way to deal with the corpses is to put them up against a wall of Elvish Shamans. In 1.1.1, they each get healed by 8 points per turn, and with Slow, they only take about that much.

[MawhrinSkel]

I'm having the sinking feeling, as I read these posts, that I'm NOT going to win this level. People are referring to their "knights" (plural), or this or that, and I'm just thinking "Hmm, I don't have any of those, at least not anymore"

My "strategy" above doesn't require Knights, only level 1 units and a very small quantity of cash. The Knights just make it seem less cowardly.

If you have enough cash, you could also try populating the moat around the central castle with level 1 mermen, backed by plenty of healers. The mermen have 60% defence in water, and have good resistance to cold. Don't actually attack with them, just use them to obstruct the enemy.

Consider the village adjacent to the castle as part of the defences too. Any unit there will be swarmed by WCs, although it cannot be entirely surrounded, but with enough hit points and backed by a curer it should last a few turns. A level 1 or 2 unit could be levelled up here, fully healing.

[Gelf]

Hmm, merman went... uh... very very badly. Like everything else, they were swept aside like nothing. Three turns of defending, even backed by shamans, and the undead still had won, easily. The knight who went to retrieve the water died... no match for 6 wraiths and 50 corpses. I've seen hard... but this... this is incredible. Running away to the corners fails, since the undead catch up, and kill everyone within a turn or two. One skeleton or wraith easily kills one elf in one turn without special luck, even with terrain, and healing doesn't help the dead, so the shamans don't work either... the undead seem immune or nearly so to almost all weapons. so the math seems to indicate this won't work. Did I accidentally press the super hard mode when I meant medium? But there has to be a solution.

[Mustelid]

Hmm, merman went... uh... very very badly. Like everything else, they were swept aside like nothing. Three turns of defending, even backed by shamans, and the undead still had won, easily. The knight who went to retrieve the water died... no match for 6 wraiths and 50 corpses. I've seen hard... but this... this is incredible. Running away to the corners fails, since the undead catch up, and kill everyone within a turn or two. One skeleton or wraith easily kills one elf in one turn without special luck, even with terrain, and healing doesn't help the dead, so the shamans don't work either... the undead seem immune or nearly so to almost all weapons. so the math seems to indicate this won't work. Did I accidentally press the super hard mode when I meant medium? But there has to be a solution.

Okay. If you're on medium mode and you have this few levelled units, you really need to go back a few levels and concentrate on getting some more. Chances are you've lost a bunch of level 2s on the previous level - play it again, a lot more cautiously. After you've done that, the simplest, most commonly-used strategy is to recall a bunch of powerful units, including plenty of levelled healers, head south, take out the Lich there and then either hold the castle or form a defensive line - either way you won't have to handle the WCs for more than a few turns. WCs have higher defence %s and slower movement in hills and mountains, so they're less likely to die and fewer of them can reach you per turn.

[MawhrinSkel]

Running away to the corners fails, since the undead catch up, and kill everyone within a turn or two.

On further reflection, I think at least one knight was a vital part of this strategy. Send him to the north western holy water, and wait around to the west of the range of hills. The enemy should ignore him. Once it is dawn, move him within striking range of the yellow lich. He will then recall his forces, buying another couple of turns. Of course, they won't be able to stop you charging the lich. Staying within range but not attacking may buy even more time.

I think I may have recruited elvish scouts as well as fighters, as they can get to the most northern forest before being run down.

The blue army is unlikely to be a problem. Wraiths, vampire bats and chocobones could catch up with you, but they won't shouldn't have more than a couple.