The crossroads are making me cross. Very cross.

[fractionMan]

How on earth are you supposed to complete this level? It must be possible, but I can't for the life of me work it out.

Any tips?

[scott]

It is most likely that you will eventually learn where the ambushes occur. If not, STAY ON THE ROAD! Seriously, I had a lot of problems making myself have the discipline to stay on the roads. The level is nearly impossible if you keep getting ambushed.

I rush up to the signpost as fast as I can and take the eastern fork so as to fight the green enemies and avoid the blue enemies. I leave a small group at the signpost to hold off the blue guys. Then, I make my way across the hills into the big valley in the NE part of the map. The hills between the east road and the NE road do not have any ambushes east of the village.

The ambushes might get randomized in the future, in which case I would probably just rush up to the NE road while leaving a small group of cannon fodder to delay the blue guys until I can get my forces into the valley.

[quartex]

Why did this level get changed from forest to hills? It made sense to have a map of forests, becuase the elves like forests and so there was a very real temptaion to cut across the forest instead of taking the road. But since hills are a pain to cross over, it seems like there is very little reason to take the hills. Essentially we're forcing the player to use the roads, whereas before we gave them a strategic choice between roads and forest.

[santi]

Yes, crossroads made more sense before. On the other hand, princess
of Wesnoth has also been changed. The issue I guess is
with what units and how much gold will you arrive at Valley of th Dead
-which has also been changed countless times-
That said, I do not think Crossroads is that bad a scenario. Sure it is harder than before, but not anything extremely hard. Just make sure you walk into unexplored territory with a powerful group of forces and make them stick together. Even in ambushes, YOU attack first, so you should kill most if not all of the enemy ambushers

[erl]

Crossroads got changed much because it made no sense for elves to be ambushed in their favourite terrain - forest.

[pjr]

IIRC, it used to be necesary to defeat both leaders to win this scenario, which made it very difficult. In the current version, the stragety described by scott works very well. Killing the north-eastern leader isn't a problem, since his troops all rush out and leave gaps in the lines through which the castle can be reached.

I agree with quartex that changing the hills back to forest would allow more flexibility of strategy, and I don't see why elves should be immune to ambush in favourable terrain. From the player's point of view, it might seem that there would have been even more ambushes triggered if the units involved hadn't been elves.

[Timotheus]

yes I always jsut recruit for a turn and send some people up, then follow the next turn with Konrad and more recruits, it only takes me Kelfador and my paladin and maybe one other to take the east men, and I leave the rest at the crossroads. and stay to the roads.

as for forest, I think realistically, its much easier for anyone to ambush out of forests, but the elves would mop the floor with orcs in the forest. elves really aren't ones to get ambushed in the first place, especially not by big, stupid, stick-cracking, leaf-crumpling orcs. and wolves come to that.

also, I seem to get ambushed on the road occasionally.

btw on an off note, could anyone tell me how ranger ambushes work?

[scott]

When the ranger is in forest, he is invisible to the enemy AI. When an enemy moves adjacent to him, the enemy has to stop and the ranger becomes visible. Usually the enemy decides to attack the ranger, but he normally does well in the fight. If he just attacked he's not invisble.

[gayasswesnoth]

this lvl is so simple, dont even walk i hex into the forest/hills, cos ambush awaits, send up all ur troops north east to kill that bad mofo and justr leave 1 or 2 units as cannon fodder behind.