Valley of Death - Who to make Holy?

[Balis]

What unit will benefit most from gaining a holy melee attack? I already have 2 paladins and a mage of light. If I give it to a Marshall does that mean his holy melee will REPLACE his blade melee? Blade is pretty useful against assassins etc. It would make more sense if the Holy attack is in addition as you're still getting clobbered with a big sword (and if this is the case then ignore me as a fool!).

How about giving it to a red mage? Or should I recruit a brand new horseman and build him up into a Grand Knight? Questions, Questions!

First attempt at this level saw me trying to fight on all 3 fronts.... You can imagine what happened.
I sent 2 Paladins, 1 MoL, and 1 brand spanking new Holy Horseman up north.... They died.
I sent a group of elves east to the woods to deal with the WC invasion (1 Marshall, 1 Marksman, 1 Druid, 1 Archer, Kalenz) - these guys probably did the best with Kalenz leveling up after a man-man stand in the village east of the woods.
The Southern posse - oh dear! I decided to try to hold ground with Delfador, Konrad, a Red Mage, a blue mage and a shaman - massacred!
Time to try something new methinks!

[Elvish_Pillager]

If I give it to a Marshall does that mean his holy melee will REPLACE his blade melee? Blade is pretty useful against assassins etc.

The water only lasts until the end of the scenario, and there are no assassins in this scenario.

[Elvish_Pillager]

First attempt at this level saw me trying to fight on all 3 fronts.... You can imagine what happened.
I sent 2 Paladins, 1 MoL, and 1 brand spanking new Holy Horseman up north.... They died.
I sent a group of elves east to the woods to deal with the WC invasion (1 Marshall, 1 Marksman, 1 Druid, 1 Archer, Kalenz) - these guys probably did the best with Kalenz leveling up after a man-man stand in the village east of the woods.
The Southern posse - oh dear! I decided to try to hold ground with Delfador, Konrad, a Red Mage, a blue mage and a shaman - massacred!
Time to try something new methinks!

Kalenz is best in the north, because the Wraiths are relatively less resistant compared to their HP to his cold damage compared with the other undead, plus they're great XP. Delfador is best in the southwest, which is where you need raw damage.

Two paladins should be able to take on all the walking corpses in the scenario if you fight at the right time of day and don't do anything stupid. On the other hand, I don't think you have enough forces to fight at all three fronts (unless maybe you're playing on Easy?)

[Balis]

All done!

Firstly, I didn't realize that the water wasn't permanent so my question was a little redundant.

Thanks for the advice but I ended up doing it a little differently: I stuck with the Elves in the forest to fight the zombie hordes and get 3 level ups out of it.

I didn't bother trying to tackle the Southern forces head on as the terrain didn't seem favourable. I retreeated from the central fort to the west behind the mountains drawing in the southern army and picking them off, doing likewise with the northern boys. I sent my 2 Paladins around the eastern edge of the mountains, picking off what I could before nailing the northern leader.
Not bad given the resources (250gps) and I didn't lose a unit. I do wonder if my overall force is a bit thin as I've relied a lot on my lvl 3 units. Tell me if you think this a bit weak, or whether you see a lack of some units that I'll need soon:

Konrad 3
Delfador 5
Kalenz 3

2 x Avengers
2 x Marshalls
1 x Sharpshooter
1 x Mage of Light
2 x Paladins
1 x Merman Triton (with Storm Trident)

1 x Captain 8/90
1 x Hero 40/80
1 x Druid 70/90
1 x Red Mage 97/100
1 x Marksman 53/90
1 x White Mage 24/120
2 x Rogues 16/56, 0/70

2 x Archers 21/36, 6/44
1 x Scout 16/37
1 x Shaman 2/32
1 x Horseman 21/44

Note that I haven't levelled up any Scouts - will I regret this? I like them but they seem a bit crap.
BTW - I'm playing it on Medium.

Many thanks.

[Elvish_Pillager]

Not levelling scouts is no problem.

I notice you don't have any Champions or Grand Knights - the two toughest units you have access to yet. While not necessary, it can make things a bunch easier to have a fat meat shield when you need it. Also, it's always good to have a few Knights around, except in the caves.

Overall, you seem to be doing pretty well.

[Thrawn]

Not levelling scouts is no problem.

just don't recall them, unless they have high xp gained...new onres are cheaper

[nukchebi0]

This level was very [censored]. I just filled up the camp with a bunch of worthless mages, a shaman, and a scout. Then, I evacuated the important characters with the shaman, the next turn, used the scout to annoy the undead by capturing cities, and used 15 sacrifical mages to slow the undead enough. I lost Morimenu, though.

P.S. Always recall Gryphon Riders, Horsemen, and anything else over 20 gold, as it is cheaper than rerecruiting them, even if they have no experience.

[appleide]

This level was very [censored]. I just filled up the camp with a bunch of worthless mages, a shaman, and a scout. Then, I evacuated the important characters with the shaman, the next turn, used the scout to annoy the undead by capturing cities, and used 15 sacrifical mages to slow the undead enough. I lost Morimenu, though.

P.S. Always recall Gryphon Riders, Horsemen, and anything else over 20 gold, as it is cheaper than rerecruiting them, even if they have no experience.

I recalled a bunch of level 2s and threes and 5-6 level1s, charged to the southern fort, and defended myself there, lost only several level1s.

[CoolGoose]

Same as appleide.

[turin]

This level was very [censored]. I just filled up the camp with a bunch of worthless mages, a shaman, and a scout. Then, I evacuated the important characters with the shaman, the next turn, used the scout to annoy the undead by capturing cities, and used 15 sacrifical mages to slow the undead enough. I lost Morimenu, though.

P.S. Always recall Gryphon Riders, Horsemen, and anything else over 20 gold, as it is cheaper than rerecruiting them, even if they have no experience.

Yes. If you don't try to level any units on a scenario, and instead focus on simply surviving, and you don't care if your non-essential units die, most scenarios will be boring. Do you have a point?

[Kel]

Not to mention losing a loyal MoL.

Anyways, you could try actually killing all three leaders. Generally I send a Horseman to get the southern Holy Water, and stick him on an eastern village with a Marshal behind him. He generally can kill an indefinite number of WCs, and probably level to a Grand Knight while he's at it, since his boosted attack kills the WCs in a single counterattack. Keep one or two archers in the forest, to divert some WCs and offer the Horseman somewhere to run if necessary.

Konrad and Kalenz go north, tanking for an assortment of Mages (red and white) and probably one Elvish Hero.

Grab the northern water with a Knight, who you'll send south. Delfador and Lisar (with Scepter) will also go south, along with some Paladins, a healer, and a few damage-soakers. Don't even bother with trying to conserve XP here, just blast everything out of the way with your Paladin(s) and heroes.

[nukchebi0]

Li'sar isn't a factor on Valley of Death, except for the fact that she sent you there. I didn't have any leveled mages, though, so my strategy worked well enough. i jsut did bring along enough sacrificial units to bait them away from Morimirinu.

[Tmoiy]

Grab the northern water with a Knight, who you'll send south. Delfador and Lisar (with Scepter) will also go south...

Besides the fact that Li'sar isn't allied with you yet, this is well before the Scepter...

[pqueiro]

I usually go for an assassination strategy in Valley of Death (without Moremirmu, as I am too much of a pansy to take on Isle of the Damned ). Basically, this means sending two knights to get the holy water and have one position itself up north and the other south. The key here is to get into position just far enough from the liches for their soldiers to press forward whilst being close enough to strike quickly.

I then take several mages, my heroes, any paladins I might have and a few healers to the eastern enemy. The idea is to avoid having a strong unit (say, a paladin) be overrun by walking corpses, because they will take you down eventually (it's the old conundrum; the more your strong unit kills, the more he is attacked as spaces open up around him). The solution is to present a wall of mages to the WCs and to encircle their castle quickly, so that they can't spill out - remember, each hex occupied in the castle is one less WC the lich can recruit. Carve your way into the castle and then kill the lich swiftly.

Timing is important; you should strike quickly at all three liches and do away with them as soon as possible. Once the other two armies get to you, you'll be in a sorry state of affairs. Also, do your best to strike at the two other leaders during the day; a holy knight during the day does an ungodly (no pun intended ) amount of damage to an undead lich during a charge, even without leadership.

This isn't exactly an experience-rich tactic - even though I did manage to level up one of my knights (who had a sizeable amount of experience anyway) and a couple of mages - but it spares you the worst bits of cowering in fear at any one edge, the boredom of watching a trillion WCs move about and can still net you some gold if you need it.

Also, be weary of over-recruiting; having quite a bit of units will help you deal with the WCs, but the early finish bonus might not make up for it (plus you'll be dividing experience along more people).

[Kel]

Besides the fact that Li'sar isn't allied with you yet, this is well before the Scepter...

Sorry, the point was just to send your heaviest damage-dealers south. The point is well-taken.