Problems with LOW-Hostile Mountains

[CharlieB]

Right, just in case anyone is still struggling on this one, if you want the trolls to go for the dwarves do the following.

Turn 1) Recruit/recall 2 horseman, send Anduilas and Landar to capture the villages to the East (the northernmost village will take two turns). Kalenz should capture the village to the west of the keep.

Turn 2) Landar captures the 2nd village to the west, Anduilas moves to capture the village to the NorthWest of the keep (will take two turns). Kalenz returns to the keep. One scout (A) follows the coastline down and captures the village to the SW of the keep. The other scout moves towards the mountains in the NW corner of the map and starts capturing villages (working east to west - v. important!)

Turn 3) Anduilas captures the village to the NW of the keep. Landar moves back to the keep. Scout A moves to the north of the middle island (unless he is "quick" he will be in the woods to the NorthEast of the northern village on the island, if quick, then he will capture the northernmost village). The other scout continues capturing villages in the mountains. He should not move south, only west into the moutains, capturing villages east to west. The trolls will move out to attack at this point.

Turn 4) Scout A moves to the sourthernmost tip of the island, there is a spur of dwarf territory that a troll should cross when he comes at him. If the troll doesn't, then try not pushing so far west with the other units. You will now want to start recruiting your main force to do battle with the trolls. Do not move Landar and Andulias more than a couple of hexes west of the keep.

Turn 5) Battle on! with the dwarves help you should be able to beat the trolls (although is bl**dy hard work) - there are plenty of tips from better players than me on this thread - so read them.

(Note: this seems to work most of the time (80%), if it isn't working for you consistently, then try only recruiting one scout and leaving the villages in the mountain alone.)

Good Luck

Charlie

[santi]

My strategy: 2 scouts grab the mountain villages west, then come down. Andulias grabs the villages east, then comes down. Kalenz recruits and grabs villages. Do not recall lv2 units(if you have them) first. Instead, get some archers and fighters first because it will be bloody. The key is make a stand at the right of the island(also fight in the island if the dwarves are already fighting) and keep replenishing troops thanks to the grabbed villages. In the past you could also do it without the dwarves, but now it seems the trolls will go for the dwarves too.

[Maiklas3000]

I think the problems with the trolls (not) stepping on dwarven land have been resolved by 1.8.1. At least, the trolls were always eager to step in dwarven land in my experience. It may be because I learned to avoid grabbing southern villages, and instead just take the northern tip of the island. This pulls the trolls a bit to the east and also avoids putting your forces between the dwarves and trolls. Generally on turn 4, a troll steps onto the dwarf side. Arraying your forces differently can delay that, but I've never seen it fail to happen.

Another thing that has been fixed from earlier versions is the viability of racing Kalenz for the signpost. It's easier now (I guess he's always "fast" now) and also the alternative (defeating the troll leader) is quite difficult to accomplish on hard within the time limit.

Playing on hard, I started the scenario with 119 gold (after racing Kalenz in the first scenario), recruited/recalled 7 units, and ended the scenario with 322 gold (by going to the signpost), which was enough for the next scenario. However, this was a replay, after I finished with less gold. And I had a lot of failures before that. It's a very challenging scenario, but one of my favorites in all the campaigns to this point. If Hostile Mountains were the only scenario, The Battle for Wesnoth would still be a good game.

In general, the LOW campaign is the hardest so far (I played them in order) and requires multiple attempts on most scenarios on hard (for me at least). So, this scenario fits the campaign and is fine as is.

[santi]

A lot of thought and feedback went into this scenario as in most. My personal perference would be that the trolls do not attack the dwarves on hard, and I never had any problem winning it this way, but many people compalined that the scenario was then too hard. So the decision was made to have its present form, which partially compensates for the ease of the fight with the difficulty of reaching the troll fortress.

defeating the troll leader) is quite difficult to accomplish on hard within the time limit.

It can be done though -and I think I have replays. though I agree it's tight.

It's a very challenging scenario, but one of my favorites in all the campaigns to this point. If Hostile Mountains were the only scenario, The Battle for Wesnoth would still be a good game.

(blush)

In general, the LOW campaign is the hardest so far (I played them in order) and requires multiple attempts on most scenarios on hard (for me at least). So, this scenario fits the campaign and is fine as is.

LOW has been hardened significantly recently and I fully agree this was a good step in general, though I surely wish I had a few more turns in say Ancient Alliance to finish off the remaining orc(feels like being robbed of a hard-earned victory) or in the first scenario
I dislike it if I don't get to kill the southern commander

[Grandson_of_Sam]

I myself found this scenario a bit too easy after the complete bloodbath of the first scenario (which I played extremely bad as I thought it would end when Kalenz reaches the post). I played on easy though, but compared to other campaigns marked as "intermediate", it was a hard fight way too early.

The main problem for this scenario (on easy) is to recruit enough, but not too much cannon fodder. I myself got 6 units as screens, and advanced both on the island and on the west side. The west side battle I kept at the small forest, as both sides were even there, although if the trolls would have been level 2 or 3, I would have been wiped...

I find it actually funny if this scenario feels too hard for some people, as there are a few extremely hard scenario's later on, and this campaign should be rated expert instead of intermediate...

All in all, I like the campaign though, although I needed to replay some of the scenario's to get a better money pool for the next scenario. :)