Help request for Siege of Elensefar

[zcpv]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I wanted to share my own solution.

I am a Battle for Wesnoth beginner and had a lot of trouble with this scenario myself. I tried some of the strategies suggested in this thread (mostly oaq's two suggestions), but couldn't get anything to work. At best I'd have captured the city but then left with not enough troops or gold to hold it against the skeleton onslaught. But after many tries I figured it out. The key seems to be using the thieves to decapitate the orc army. Here's what I did (and for the record, I was playing on Normal):

1. First turn I recalled some merfolk from my previous battles. I then sent them west and had them go around the city. They'll be important later.
2. I then recruited and recalled as many shamen, elf fighters and mages I could afford, as well as a couple of scouts/horseman.
3. With first nightfall I had taken all the villages in my side of the river, and had my forces hunkered down in the forests south of the city. I let a unit serve as bait right next to the south bridge to provoke the orcs into attacking me.
4. When the thieves came with their offer, I asked them to attack the enemy rear when a banner is raised.
5. During the first night I played very defensively and had my elves hold the forests.
6. At the end of the night, almost all of the orc forces were south of the river, while the skeletons haven't reached the city yet, leaving the orc leader almost defenseless. At this point I sprung my trap: I had an elf scout cross the east bridge and take a village inside the city.
7. The enemy leader moved out of his keep to attack my scout, but at this point the thieves appeared behind him.
8. I then had the thieves and the scout throw themselves at the orc leader. This proved to be just enough to kill him (especially with the thieves' backstab ability).
9. It was now the second day, and I started attacking the leftover orcs with my main army, as well as moving Konrad north.
10. By this point the merfolk had reached the north side of the city. I used them to hold off the skeletons while my main army was pushing into the city and moping up the remaining orcs.
11. I spent the second night inside the city. It was simply a matter of holding off the skeletons at the bridge while I take villages, recruit more mages, let my injured units heal, and wait for daytime again. At this point the victory is assured, as Konrad has the gold advantage.
12. It took me another ~8 turns to push all the way into the cave and kill the necromancer. I completed the scenario with some plenty of turns left.

I hope someone else would find this useful.