Stuck on AtS:Outpost of Hell

[Maiklas3000]

I'm playing After the Storm (current version, 0.9.11), third part, scenario Outpost of Hell, hard difficulty, under Wesnoth version 1.11.17. I'm stuck.

I went back and played the previous scenario for more gold. Now my starting gold is 221 for Elynia and 176 for General Bardyl. (Minimums are 150 each.) I have preserved all my loyals, including a Marshall, a Shyde, and a Pillager. I also have a second Pillager. I have a few non-loyal level 2's available for both armies and a L3 Forest Spirit for Elynia. I'm a bit light on ready-to-level L1's.

My basic strategy is to "attack but retreat". I blitz the northwest leader, luring him out and killing him after he gets off only one round of recruits, then I fall back before getting overrun by the second wave from other leaders. I do much the same in the northeast, but it takes longer to get that leader. I initially recruit only up to my support ability, but later blow all my accumulated gold. I rely heavily on Grunts in the northwest, and I like Thugs in the northeast (but don't have enough gold for many.) I send my Shyde across the board to help General Bardyl's troops with their wounds. I also teleport Anya the Nightshade Fire over to help them (though I was late doing so in the attached replay.) And I use one demolition charge to dull the assault in the west. (I need all the rest of the charges for the objective.)

My basic problem is that I'm running out of time, which stems from struggling near the start. I've tried many times, and the attached losing replay is my best (and last.) That time, I had destroyed just one of the six 500 HP keep supports, though I had deployed two more charges on the last turn (which is too late), and I had the last three in the right vicinity. So maybe I just need to speed my advance by one turn, but the enemy is thick at the end, so I might need two extra turns to deploy all the charges, and then from what I gather from the scenario file, a boss appears with gold to recruit, so probably I need four extra turns in all.

Any ideas for recruitment? I don't have any Shadows... Would Shadows or something else help?

Any ideas for strategy, especially in the northwest?

Anyone have a winning replay under hard?

If you watch the attached replay, I recommend "Skip AI moves" in preferences.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Hmm, I played the scenario at easy difficulty a long time ago and used a strategy that involved sending kamikaze units at the enemy leaders (not all of them, just the pesky ones). I gave a barrel of explosive to the kamikaze and and placed where an enemy leader would be inclined to attack. The enemy leader nearest to General Bardyl was the first to commit suicide, taking two of his elite units as well. I hope my advice helps you in some way. As for the rest of the battle, I relied on meat shields and Wraith/Spectre (I like Spectres) attacks, taking caution to keep them away from arcane magic casters.

[Maiklas3000]

Thanks. Unfortunately, you get just 1 demo charge to use in combat on hard. (You need 6 demolition charge barrels to complete the mission. There are 13 on easy, 11 on medium, and 7 on hard.)

[taptap]

I had significant problems with the same scenario when I last attempted, or to put it bluntly: I failed. I also replayed the previous one (for money and better troops for Bardyl), lost again, then I lost track of Wesnoth for a long time altogether (and now I would probably fail even harder). That is to say: you have my sympathy. And I doubt many people (at least those active in the forum) play campaigns strictly on hardest difficulty as you do.

[mousyack]

I beat it on hard a year ago (version 0.9.1). Not before failing a couple of times, of course. However, I might have abused save/reload . Also, the replay fails on the 5th turn , so 1) I don't know what use it is for you; 2) now I'm not even sure if I actually beat the scenario, or just cheated in the end (which I could have done if I failed too many times).

That being said, attached is my replay

[krakken]

I need some help, I 've just killed all the enemy leaders, even the big shaxthal one that appears when you demolish the last pillar, but can't kill by any means the Matrix Flow System that is guarding the portal... it seems that thing is inmune to any kind of attack, I've tried with every arm that I have and nothing happens....

how can I kill that thing?, Where's the trick?, Is there any other way to finish the scenary?

[Iris]

@krakken: What Wesnoth and AtS version? Do you have a save of the last turn you played? That unit is a placeholder for scripting and it’s supposed to be removed from the game as the Shaxthal Custodian appears. Version 0.9.7 had introduced a bug that would cause it to remain in place, but I fixed it immediately afterwards in 0.9.8.

[krakken]

thanks for the quick answer, shadowm
my Wesnoth version is 1.10.3, and my AtS version is 0.9.9, and of course I saved my las turn

btw, I see you write from Chile, are you chilean? ... Im spanish, so maybe we can speak a bit español as well, anyway the questions/answers should be in english for any people that has a similar problem to read

thanks in advance

[Iris]

I can’t reproduce the issue with AtS 0.9.9 and Wesnoth 1.10.7. I asked you about the last save because I’d like to inspect it to see if I can figure out why this bug somehow resurfaced, and whether I can fix the scenario and/or that particular save for you. So, if you could upload it as an attachment...

The alternative is, of course, to use debug mode to cheat your way out of the scenario:

Spoiler:

Press : to bring up the in-game console input box, type debug into it and press Enter. Then bring it up again and enter throw enemies defeated instead. All these commands are lowercase.

If you haven’t used the in-game console before, note that for non-English keyboard layouts “pressing :” usually entails pressing more than one key, e.g. Shift + ..

(And before anyone else points it out, I can say as the scenario author that there is a very good reason for not using the better-known n command here.

btw, I see you write from Chile, are you chilean? ... Im spanish, so maybe we can speak a bit español as well, anyway the questions/answers should be in english for any people that has a similar problem to read

Sí, mi idioma natural es español también, pero no se me da bien hablar en español en este foro por falta de costumbre.

[krakken]

Of course, I will upload my last turn, there it goes...

gracias

[krakken]

thanks fpr the hints... they worked ok